A DOCTORS' surgery which has been providing a service to the people of Bere Ferrers for more than 70 years has been closed without warning, causing outrage among the community. Despite including a purpose-built consultation room within the new church hall extension two years ago the doctors say the surgery area is not up to NHS standards. In a letter to the Bere Ferrers Villagers' Group they also state that many of the elderly people in the community now have transport to get to the main surgery at Bere Alston. This claim has been disputed by the group which is approaching the Primary Care Trust and the MP to try and reverse the move. Secretary of the villagers' group Daphne McDonald said the new consulting room had been designed with the doctors' co-operation. 'We have been told that the church hall is not suitable because it does not follow the guidelines and rules for the provision of GP and medical services, yet for nearly 70 years doctors have been seeing patients in a kitchen which did not even have a couch or a great deal of privacy,' she said. 'The transport links are inadequate to Bere Alston, There is one bus which goes at 9.15am and does not come back until after 1pm. Elderly residents will have to rely on the good nature of other people to take them there.' A third of the village had already signed a petition and that was without actively campaigning, added Mrs McDonald. West Devon borough councillor Christine Grills said that having three sons she had used the surgery at Bere Ferrers many times over the years. 'It is very convenient for the large population of elderly people who live in the village and young families. If someone can get a flu injection in their own village they are not going to travel two and a half miles up the road for it.' She said there had been no consultation or warning about the surgery closing: 'People find out when they ring for an appointment and are told there is no surgery this week. The heating is put on every week but when the doctors don't turn up that means this energy is going to waste.' She said at one time there was no surgery at Bere Alston on a Thursday afternoon but that had changed and she believed that it was difficult organising the staff to cover at Bere Ferrers. 'It is not as if this has been running for 12 months; there has been a surgery somewhere in the village for over 70 years. We are going to fight this all the way.' In their letter to the villagers' group Bere Alston doctors Susan Cotes and Kevan Murphy said the availability of doctors had to be worked around the needs of the whole community which the Bere Alston Medical Practice covered. They said the facilities at the church hall did not meet the clinical requirements laid down by NHS guidelines and therefore it would be 'irresponsible' of the practice to continue to offer consultation in premises that were unsuitable and which, for more acute cases where infection control and proper equipment were required, could prove dangerous to patients. 'It is simply not possible to offer care of the required standard by continuing the consultations previously offered in Bere Ferrers, whereas the doctors at this surgery are clear that the right cover, with the right accessibility, is available at the Bere Alston Medical Practice.'
