NHS Update: Closure of Park Farm Surgery

I am writing to inform you about arrangements made for patients currently registered at Park Farm Surgery. The doctor that runs the surgery has made the decision to end their contract with NHS South Kent Coast CCG and will not be providing GP services at the practice after 1 April 2020.

We are pleased to confirm that we have secured provision for the 3,000 patients registered at Park Farm Surgery so they will all have continued access to a full range of GP services and care after this date.

All of the patients that are currently registered at Park Farm Surgery will receive a letter from the NHS in the next week explaining how they can register with another local GP practice. The letter will give details of how to attend registration events. Patients who attend will be able to find out more about the local GP practices and then register with the one they choose, as long as they live within the practice boundary.

Even though Park Farm Surgery is closing there will be more appointments at GP surgeries available in Folkestone as all the GP practices will receive additional funding from the CCG to enable them to scale up and take on the additional patients.

Any patients who do not register with a new GP practice after they receive their letter will receive an additional reminder before the end of March informing them how to register with a new GP practice. If patients still do not register with a new GP practice before 31 March 2020, the CCG will allocate them automatically to a local GP practice to make sure every patient currently registered at Park Farm Surgery knows who to contact should they need to make an appointment with a GP practice, be vaccinated and be eligible for national screening programmes.

We understand this may be an uncertain time for patients and they may be concerned about their future access to local GP services. However, we have reassured them in the attached letter and set out full instructions on how they can register with an alternative surgery. We are writing to you as we thought you would like to know that the CCG has secured adequate GP provision for patients from the Park Farm surgery and you may have the opportunity of informing people of these arrangements.

If you have any concerns or queries please do not hesitate to send them to eastkent.primarycare@nhs.net or call 03000 424686