Save the GP surgery at Priory Avenue, Caversham

With all four GPs at Priory Avenue surgery in Caversham, Reading, having given in their notice due to increased paperwork managers are running a tender for another organisation to provide the service, and there are concerns among NHS staff and patients that a private company could take over the surgery. This would be the first time this sort of privatisation has happened in Reading and there are fears it could lead to dramatic changes to the character and values of the local health service.

Matt Rodda, prospective Labour parliamentary candidate for Reading East, patients and local councillors are asking patients and other concerned people to sign a petition calling for the surgery to be run by a normal GP practice.

He says: “The record of private companies who have taken over GP services is poor – patients have suffered from there being not enough doctors on duty, from lack of continuity of care, from clinics not being held, and even found their APMS contract sold on to another provider which is what the APMS rules allow. That’s not what people in Caversham expect from a Government that promised not to cut the NHS. I hope that Priory Avenue can remain a proper GP practice with all that means.”