Dedham: Breakthrough in GP saga

Essex County Standard - Thursday 5th February 2009

By Clare Jeffs

Patients in Dedham look set to get what they have been demanding for years: a GP service at their local medical centre.

A breakthrough in the long-running saga came this week as health officials met with representatives of the Dedham Vale Community Health Association and the doctors’ practice in neighbouring Ardleigh.

Together, they are proposing two or three sessions a week to be staffed, as a branch surgery, by Dr Paul Manders’ Dedham Road practice.

If NHS North East Essex gives the go-ahead, it could be up and running by early summer.

It will be a huge relief to Dedham residents, who secured thousands of pounds to build the £190,000 Manningtree Road centre three years ago.

However, the centre has stayed empty ever since because no agreement could be reached over the funding for doctors to man the surgery.

Patients were obliged to continue travelling to Ardleigh or even East Bergholt, Suffolk, for treatment.

Although the new practice’s running expenses have yet to be finalised, it seems a compromise has now been reached.

News of the breakthrough has been welcomed by everyone involved in the issue.

NHS North East Essex chief executive Dr Paul Zollinger-Read said: “We are extremely receptive to this proposal. The Ardleigh surgery is a very dedicated practice, which has clearly recognised a need to provide services in Dedham.

“We recently commissioned a survey of Dedham residents and their views on local GP services, so we know this news will be welcomed by them.”

Dr Vernon Bettle, one of the Ardleigh surgery’s three partners, said: “Our plan is to run a branch surgery in the Roman Place premises, initially for two or three sessions a week with a GP and receptionist.

“If, as anticipated, the new service is well received, we will look to expand the service with the provision of nurse practitioner sessions and possibly other services. The branch surgery will be fully integrated with our main surgery.”

It is also a cause for celebration among residents whose own GP service, deemed to have been run from unsuitable premises, closed in 2003.

Thanks to campaigners and funding from the East of England Development Agency, Roman Place was built by Colne Housing Society and handed over to the newly-formed DVCHA to manage in February 2007.

Association chairman Christopher Garnett said: “This development has been six years in the making and we are all highly delighted.

“It is enormous news for villagers and just reward for a lot of hard work, not least by John Osborn, our company secretary and treasurer.

“The Ardleigh surgery is a very patient-orientated practice with a very high reputation. I can’t think of better people to be running our branch surgery.”

The move has also delighted north Essex MP Bernard Jenkin, who took the issue to Alan Johnson, the-then Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, in October 2007.

"This is a huge step in the right direction. It is a breakthrough,” he said.

"I think that with a principle having been established, what the Ardleigh practice chooses to do depends on demand.

"But Dedham is quite a big place and I think there should be demand, particularly among the elderly and those without cars."

Mr Jenkin paid tribute to all the parties involved in the debate, and praised the proposal as "imaginative".

"It is of low cost to the PCT, but will be perceived as of very high value to the people of the Dedham Vale. And I hope the PCT will approve it in due course," he said.

If permission is granted, the new GP practice will join the Dedham Vale Network of Complementary Medicines, which moved into the empty centre last November.