Opinion: Reorganisation of Guildford GP Practices Would Lead to Poorer Service

Published on: 3 Dec, 2021
Updated on: 5 Dec, 2021

Flu jab queue Wodeland Surgery

By Nigel Fielding

member of the St Catherine’s Village Association committee

Many residents remain unaware that Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group is planning to “rationalise” primary care services in North and West Guildford. This could affect the proximity of our valued GP surgeries.

The reorganisation, paused because of the pandemic, involves merging the services of the Guildowns Group Practice (GGP) and Woodbridge Hill Surgery. It is likely to have a significant impact on patient service, in particular, the distance patients need to travel to see their GP.

It is suggested that all surgeries in the west and south of Guildford may be centralised into just one, or possibly two, surgeries, both in the north of Guildford. Wodeland Surgery was only relocated to its purpose-built building in the 1990s but if the reorganisation goes ahead as suggested it will leave no GP practice surgeries south of the A3 and west of the River Wey.

Map showing the location of existing surgeries in Guildford and the suggested new sites. Click on image to enlarge.

Guildowns currently operates from four locations and Woodbridge Hill from one. Options were considered in a 2019 feasibility study with a single site, new-build option at either the Jarvis Centre or Kings College in Park Barn and a two-site option with new buildings on both these sites. A three-site option would retain the Wodeland Avenue surgery but was seen as highly unlikely.

Fundamental travel and transport issues make journeys across the town, especially south to north, complex and often time-consuming. Buses within Guildford are the only means of public transport. The majority are routed through the town centre and many terminate in the centre, especially the bus station.

Journeys from south to north require passengers to change buses which, along with town centre congestion, could make access to the proposed primary care centres, if solely in North Guildford, difficult.

Patients in the south and west of Guildford would face longer journey times especially during rush hours or when the A3 is congested. The area outlined in black on the map has an estimated population of approximately 12,000 people. While some use surgeries in the east of Guildford (Dapdune, St Lukes and Austen Road), and some now use surgeries in Godalming and Milford following the closure of the St Nicolas surgery in Buryfields, a large fraction of residents in South and West Guildford use the Wodeland Avenue surgery.

When St Nicolas surgery closed the other Guildford surgeries could not take on a significant part of its caseload, indicating that there was already pressure on local GP practices. That pressure can only increase as Guildford Borough Council proceeds with its Guildford Economic Regeneration Plan (GERP), which will potentially add 4,000 new homes in the town centre area over the next 2-5 years, with other new housing developments further adding to the demand on local GP practices.

Those leading the CCG Feasibility Study have emphasised that North Guildford includes the areas of most substantial social deprivation in our borough. It is certainly the case that there is a need to improve GP services in that part of the town.

The CCG’s intention is to create “super-surgeries” that will have more advanced equipment and facilities, and offer a wider range of services. This is highly desirable, but it is equally desirable that any improved GP services should be accessible to all Guildford residents.

The 2019 feasibility study found that stakeholders, including patients and the general public, regard access, defined as “physically being able to get to the practice with good transport links and car parking facilities”, as the prime priority. While the 2019 study concluded that its favoured two-site option would enable the majority of patients to access the new sites by a 5 to 15-minute car journey, the modelling was not based on rush hour traffic and the journey times are substantially higher by public transport.

The importance and need to provide new primary care facilities and services north of the A3, an area having the highest level of deprivation in Guildford and with new housing developments coming on stream is clear. Nonetheless, some may feel that this should not be achieved by limiting facilities and services to patients in the west and south-west of Guildford which are also going to experience substantial population growth and which have already seen the closure of one of their two surgeries.

Click on image to link

Readers interested in the GP practice reorganisation may wish to consult this CCG webpage Health and Primary Care in Guildford as the initiative develops, and to seek the view of their local councillor, noting that the intention is for the new super-surgeries to be up and running by April 2024, when services at the existing surgeries will cease.

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