RESIDENTS in Neyland have called upon the Argyle Medical Group to re-think its decision to close the St. Clements Surgery in the town.

On Wednesday, January 17, the Argyle Medical Group announced it had submitted an application to Hywel Dda Local Health Board to close the Branch Surgery at St. Clements, Neyland.

The surgery currently has 2300 patients on its books and that decision provoked widespread anger within the town.

Over 200 people attended a meeting held at the Athletic Club last night (Jan 26) to voice their concerns about what a potential closure would mean for most of them.

The meeting was chaired by Mike Howells while a number of doctors who are a part of the Argyle Medical Group also attended to answer questions from the public.

Dr Richard Bury opened the evening saying: “We have thought long and hard about how we can provide safe care for all of our patients and we think about everybody equally.

“Things have changed so much over the last 11 years. We then had 13 GPs and we now have 8.5 equivalent staff.

“That still leaves us short of people to do the work. We have been finding it difficult to recruit away from central areas.

“The demographic has changed; when we do house visits now the average age of people is 85 and it is getting very stressful for everybody concerned.

“Social media is a major problem against us when recruiting, when people see the animosity against us they think ‘why should I work there’ and it is putting people off.

“We are trying desperately to find more GPs but we have to work a system that is as safe as possible for everyone and that’s why we want to consolidate with one surgery.”

A number of people then spoke about the distances patients would have to travel if Neyland was to close, stating there would be a 16-mile round trip if the bridge was closed.

Others said that in the other surgeries, patients are queuing at 7am in the morning and asked how they expected people without cars to get there.

Dr Bury replied saying: “This is only a proposal at the moment, this is a forewarning and we haven’t made any decisions yet.”

Speaking on appointments, Practice Manager Judith Scourfield said that nobody was ever refused an appointment but that was knocked backed by cries of derision from the audience.

She went on to say that nobody was more important than anybody else but said there was a need to house everybody somewhere.

One resident said that closing a community service is ‘devastating’ and said they weren’t delivering a clear reason why St Clements should close.

Dr Jenny Boyce added: “This isn’t a decision I would let happen lightly, this is about your safety and our safety. An article online states that GPs should see around 25 patients on an average day, on an ordinary day in Neyland it is at least 36 a day. We also do house visits and we are expected to make a clinical decision on every one of those.

“We were called in after the new year as we had 100 patients on top of what the surgery had already seen.
“There are different grades of people but with one site, different nurses can do different things and it is all about safety for the patients. This is not a final decision as it has to go through the Health Board.”

One of the questions raised was; what would happen if the Health Board said no to the closure? The response was that the surgery may have to close anyway.

One town councillor said that when the surgery closed in the afternoon, they were told not to listen to the rumours that they are closing and added: “They weren’t rumours.”

Many people also asked why the Health Board had not sent a representative to the meeting but Helen Williams, a member of the Community Health Council (CHC) stated they had declined the invite to attend.

Pembroke Dock Town Councilor Stephen O’Connor stated in a meeting the previous night that someone from the Health Board had assured them that somebody would be in Neyland.

Another person then added that because she hasn’t got a car, she would have to get a bus to Law Street which would mean a long walk to the surgery and asked; would some arrangement be made to get people to the Argyle surgery?

There was no answer from any of the doctors to that question.

There were then calls for Neyland to stand up and all write letters in to the Health Board, stating that they had been ‘forgotten about’.

A resolution had been drafted for the meeting asking the Health Board to take control of the surgery to avoid a collapse of primary care services to its patients.

However, a majority felt that they should hold another meeting with the Health Board in order to show them their concerns.

Speaking after the meeting, Dr Jenny Boyce said: “We’re passionate about giving good healthcare to the people of Pembrokeshire, wherever they live. It’s not about boundaries; it’s certainly not about money in any way shape or form. We will take away all the points that have been made to us and we will think them through again within the practice.”