Lindfield Medical Centre: ‘We will have fewer doctor sessions than we did 20 years ago’

The medical centre posted a message to its Facebook page on Wednesday, February 8, to say that it would be 14 sessions (half days) of doctor time down per week from the start of March.

A spokesperson said: “That is seven whole days of doctor appointments per week or 420 appointments.”

The medical centre said this is due to the departures of two doctors who are ‘reducing their time commitment to GP’ or leaving the profession.

The spokesperson said: “We will have fewer doctor sessions than we did 20 years ago, when we had 40 sessions. Our patient population has increased by 4,000, or 33 per cent in the past 20 years. If we had all of our doctors in, we would be able to offer 34 sessions. The NHS mandates that we have a weekly ward round with all five of our nursing homes, which takes out another five sessions per week. This leaves us with only 29 sessions at the moment.”

The medical centre said it is getting in locums where it can and is currently trying to recruit.

They said: “Please bear with us. This is a very difficult time for the surgery. Those of us who are left, are really working incredibly hard to try to deal with all of our patients in a safe and effective manner. Thank you for your understanding and patience.”

The medical centre said urgent queries would be signposted to 111/UTC/Livi and A&E where appropriate if there were no further appointments left.