Council to call for action over GP provision in Wokingham town

THE lack of GP provision at the Burma Hills surgery was raised by Wokingham town council Conservative group leader Daniel Hinton during a meeting of Wokingham Borough

Council, held on Thursday, March 24.

He said that when the doctor retired, local residents had been redirected to Wokingham Medical Centre.

“I understand there is talk and promises but at the moment no firm plans to restore GP services at this practice,” he told the chamber, adding that an update from the CCG had not been provided, and there was still no GP in the surgery.

“What is the truth in regards to Burma Hills and is there any update?”

Cllr Charles Margetts, the executive member for adult services, health and wellbeing, said the CCG’s decision to remove the GP service was “simply not acceptable”, and that the council had been told that Burma Hills’ role as a covid vaccination centre ended, face-to-face GP services would resume.

“We went back to the CCG last week and have received a commitment that the full range of primary care medical services will restart in April.

It is the responsibility of the practice to communicate to local residents the reopening date.”

Cllr Margetts promised that the council would watch the situation and apply pressure to ensure the service was restored.

In response, Mr Hinton said there were problems with general GP provision in central Wokingham.

Cllr Margetts promised action: “We have been calling on CCG for many months to do something about it, we will not rest on this until we get a response.“

He added that Wokingham had very good GPs “delivering great services”, but Wokingham Medical Centre was ranked in the bottom 5% in England.

He had raised this issue with MPs, and has a meeting planned with the CCG to try and move the issue forward.