WRINGTON Vale Medical Practice (WVMP). Our doctors want to expand and develop their medical services to accommodate the needs and demands of all their patients for the next 30 years.

WRINGTON Vale Medical Practice (WVMP). Our doctors want to expand and develop their medical services to accommodate the needs and demands of all their patients for the next 30 years. They tell us that the existing surgeries are no longer adequate and that expansion of the present sites is not an option. After an immense amount of thought and work, they have concluded that the only clinical and economic solution is for a single, purpose-built facility.

I support this aim and have argued the case for some time using only the facts, which are freely available in the public domain.

If the acknowledged future of GP surgeries is for larger, centralised and more cost-effective facilities, what alternatives can the Save Our Surgery group (SOS) offer? If a new surgery is to ease the burden on local hospitals, incorporate advances in modern medical practice and cope with the growing needs of an ageing population, what alternatives can SOS suggest? Given that NHS spending is to be drastically cut after 2011, how can our local GPs cope with these changes other than by a fundamental rationalisation of resources? What alternative source of funds can SOS recommend?

The other fundamental factor of future Government medical policy that seems to have escaped SOS is that of patient choice. Whether they like it or not, in future we will all be able to select the medical facility that best suits our individual needs. WVMP recognises this, which is why it proposes a new, future-proof facility to attract and retain patients into and beyond the next generation.

IAN PITCH

Church Road, Winscombe

Editor's note: This correspondence is now closed.