Bents Green Surgery

It is now known for certain that the Bents Green Surgery will close on 1st April. Letters will be going out to patients from NHS England next week in which they detail the other 9 surgeries in the area to which the Bents Green patients are most likely to transfer. The NHS no longer directs patients to any particular GP practice, a fact which many of the older patients are still unaware. It’s their responsibility to make the choice.

It’s a very sad loss to the community but interesting too that there is so much extra capacity within the system that all the 2400 patients can be accommodated so easily elsewhere. In our area, the surgeries at Greystones, The Hollies, Falkland House and Ecclesall could easily take that number together. In fact, The Hollies alone could expand to take all of them itself.

There was a vigorous campaign to keep the Bents Green practice going with a very well attended public meeting before Christmas at which NHS England responded to patients’ questions. In the end, no doctors came forward to continue the surgery and closure became inevitable.