Jesmond Health Partnership (JHP) and Gosforth Memorial Medical Centre (GMMC) hosted the first of three drop-in events for patients to discuss their views about the two practices merging together earlier this month.

The first drop-in was held in Jesmond Library on Monday 4th December, with the second taking place at Trinity Centre, Gosforth a week later. The practices are also accepting feedback online.

Proposals for the merger came after two of GMMC’s three GP partners announced their forthcoming retirements. Dr Phil Taylor, one of the retiring partners, said: “This has essentially been prompted by recruitment issues for partners, which is a national problem.”

Vicky Watson, the Practice Manager at JHP, told JesmondLocal: “It’s a challenge nationally in that not many GPs are wanting to potentially become GP partners.” She added: “It makes more sense to think about having bigger practices.”

However, Watson was keen to explain that fewer partners does not mean fewer GPs: “We are recruiting. We have some more GPs starting in the new year,” she said.

She also emphasised that by merging together to form a larger organisation, the GP surgery will be in a better position to hire more specialists.

JHP and GMMC have created a feedback form, which so far has had 163 online responses. Of those responses, one-third have come from JHP patients. Watson revealed that the main three concerns patients currently have are same-day access, choice of appointment time, and continuity.

Dr Ben Davies, one of three GP partners at JHP, told JesmondLocal: “I think patients naturally will be quite anxious about this sort of situation.” He asserts: “We are still going to be providing high quality care.”

JHP, which currently has over 16,000 patients, has already merged twice in the last four years. Jill Kelly, a JHP patient, is positive about the GMMC merger: “When I heard about the merger, I didn’t really have any concerns,” she said.

Her confidence stems from previous, successful mergers: “It’s happened before, it’s happening again. It didn’t affect me particularly last time so I don’t mind.”

Results from the feedback form have so far shown that over half of respondents support the merger, and less than 1 in 5 don’t support it. 29% of respondents are still unsure. The consultation period ends on 19th January.

If the proposals are approved by NHS England, the two practices are hoping the merger will go through by 1st April.

If you’d like to have your say on the merger, complete the feedback form here, where you’ll also find FAQs.