OKEHAMPTON Medical Centre is to hold an open day on Saturday, February 13 to talk with current and new patients on the future of the surgery and to answer any questions they may have.

The centre is holding the event from noon to 3pm for patients and new patients alike to look around the centre, meet staff and find out about self check-in and patient access online.

Hugh Norman, chair of the medical centre’s patient participation group said: ’The day is for both Okement Surgery patients to come along and find out for themselves about Okehampton Medical Centre and for Okehampton Medical Centre patients who may be concerned about our capacity to cope with any new patients we will get from the closure of the Okement Surgery. Anyone will be able to come along and have their questions answered and find out more about our medical centre.’

The centre has decided to hold the open day partly in response to speculation surrounding Okehampton Medical Centre’s capacity to cope with an influx of new patients after the impending closure of the Okement Surgery based at Okehampton Community Hospital.

At a public meeting held on January 22, Okehampton Medical Centre partner Dr Tim Watson reassured people that the centre has the necessary capacity to cope with new patients.

He said: ‘People are concerned with our ability to cope. There are two vital things when it comes to capacity, the first being having the space to cope. We are very lucky in that buildings are a problem for many primary care providers in Devon. We have the physical space but most of the issue is having enough people, enough staff. We are interviewing for new staff and having more staff means we can see more patients. We have a capacity for growth of patients coming from the Okement Surgery and the new people we will have in the town through the housing developments. Because of the closure, we are now accelerating plans which were already in place for our growth. We have the correct planning in place and the capacity to cope.’