Petition to Save St Mary's Medical Centre attracts more than 625 signatures in a few hours

A petition launched to 'Save St Mary's' after the announced closure of a GP surgey in Stamford is attracting huge support.

The online petition , launched yesterday (Thursday), will be sent to Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group and South Kesteven District Council, calling for better primary care services for Stamford.

It follows the announcement last week (on September 15) by Lakeside Healthcare that it will close its 15,000-patient St Mary's practice in Wharf Road, Stamford and move those patients to the Sheepmarket Surgery off Ryhall Road. The closure is due to take place on December 1.

Members of the patient participation group, which represents people registered with the two Lakeside GP surgeries in Stamford, fear GP services for all 30,000 patients will decline 'even further' and is urging people to oppose the closure.

The petition , which is backed by chairman of the patient participation group Andrew Nebel, aims to:

• Instruct NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (which decides how NHS money is spent locally) to stop Lakeside closing St Mary's surgery
• Urge NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group and South Kesteven District Council to undertake a full 'needs-based analysis' and generate a proper strategic primary care plan for Stamford
• Ensure that a full, open and widely based public consultation and engagement process is completed before any change is made to the current primary care set up
• Ensure that an 'equality and quality impact assessment' is undertaken

At a meeting of NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on Thursday (September 24) it was revealed that Lakeside Healthcare has not had the closure approved by the commissioning group and will need to demonstrate that patient needs can be met with the appropriate level of quality care. Ultimate authority over the closure lies with the CCG.

John Turner chief executive of NHS Lincolnshire CCG said: "Our job is to ensure the continuity of the highest quality of service for the people of Stamford. We need to wait for our Lakeside colleagues to present the outcome of the patient engagement exercise to see what they are doing to keep primary care services in good shape in Stamford."

He added that the engagement ended on October 25 and NHS Lincolnshire CCG would make a decision on Lakeside's case for closure during November. Mr Turner admitted that this was a very short timescale.

People can share their views on the proposed closure of St Mary's Medical Centre by:

• Writing to MP Gareth Davies at The House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or emailing gareth.davies.mp@parliament.uk
• Writing to Andrew Nebel at the patient participation group at lhsppg.secretary@gmail.com
• Completing Lakeside’s survey, which Lakeside's survey can be found by clicking here.
• Signing the Save St Mary's online petition, which can be found by clicking here.