Public Meeting in Southcote: How to help the Doctors’ surgery at Circuit Lane expand to meet local needs

READING & DISTRICT LABOUR PARTY MEDIA RELEASE
5 September 2010

Public Meeting in Southcote: How to help the Doctors’ surgery at Circuit Lane expand to meet local needs

Southcote Councillors Pete Ruhemann, Deborah Edwards and John Ennis have called a public meeting on Thursday 9 September, at 7 p.m. at the Grange United Reform Church on Southcote Lane, to give doctors at the Circuit Lane surgery opposite the opportunity to put their case for expansion of their surgery to local residents.
Pete Ruhemann explains: “The consultation on the possible closure of the surgery at Underwood Road has focussed attention on the challenges facing the much bigger surgery at Circuit Lane, which many Southcote residents use.
“The Circuit Lane surgery serves about 10,500 patients, about 2,500 of them from Calcot, and has the smallest floor area per patient of any GP surgery in Reading or its neighbours.
“The doctors at the surgery believe the need to expand their surgery is paramount. They would like to see more consultation rooms allowing them to offer more services on site, and also accommodation for their district nurses.
“We as local Councillors felt it important to give the doctors the opportunity to put their needs to the local community and discuss plans to develop their services and their site, which is why we have called the public meeting on 9 September.
“We have also written to Berkshire West Primary Care Trust who, although of course the Coalition Government plans to abolish them by 2013, do still want to see that cost-effective solutions are found to developing premises from which new GP services can be delivered.”
The meeting is open to all, but Cllr. Ruhemann adds people who can’t make it are very welcome to contact him with their views.