Patients flock to sign petition

A PETITION to get funding for a new doctors' surgery in Gorleston has been signed by over 600 patients - only three months after it was launched.

The partners at Gorleston Medical Centre on the Magdalen estate are appealing to NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney to pay for the new centre on the nearby Shrublands estate, which would provide more space and more parking for patients.

Nearly 6,000 patients are registered at the current surgery in Stuart Close, but conditions are so cramped two doctors have to share a room, which is also used by the mental health link worker. Staff struggle to get disabled patients upstairs for minor surgery.

The centre has three doctors - two trainee doctors and a GP registrar - and accommodates visits from mental health workers and a midwife. Patients have to park in the street.

The final straw for surgery staff came when the then Primary Care Trust (PCT) decided to invest in a new walk-in medical centre to replace the former Greyfriars Clinic in Yarmouth and rebuild the Falklands surgery in Bradwell.

Among the petition's signatories is Yarmouth MP Tony Wright, who visited the centre to add his weight to the campaign.

A business case for the new Shrublands surgery was presented to the then Yarmouth PCT three years ago, but the PCT could not provide any funding at the time because it merged with Waveney PCT.

Dr Ardyn Ross, a spokesman for the surgery, said: “Our patients are really suffering. We can't offer as many appointments as we would like and we have doctors waiting to see patients who don't have rooms to see them in.

“We do have a midwife

but we are struggling to accommodate her and she does not do as many sessions as we would like.”