Health care in Moray: Patients will be asked again about Burghead and Hopeman GP practices
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Patients will be asked if Burghead and Hopeman GP surgeries should close for good.
Moray Integrated Joint Board agreed yesterday that there should be a consultation on health provision in and around Lossiemouth.
Results from a previous community engagement exercise showed strong support for the Burghead and Hopeman surgeries, which are branch centres of the Moray Coast Practice based in Lossiemouth.
Both surgeries have been closed since the start of the Covid pandemic as they did not meet social distancing needs.
They will remain shut until the conclusion of the consultation.
The practice states it does not want staff returning to work in Burghead or Hopeman because the buildings no not meet health care standards.
Members of the board yesterday also approved a conversion of the Laich Dental Suite at the Lossiemouth health centre into five clinic rooms at a cost of £170,000.
Practice manager Alison Frankland told the meeting it was the medical centre’s aim to provide "equity of care" to their 10,000 patients and that could not be done at the branch surgeries.
She said: "For a number of years the care at Burghead and Hopeman has been difficult and challenging in respect of the buildings.
"The problems have been exacerbated partly because of Covid constraints."
There is no service joining Burghead and Hopeman with Lossiemouth. Instead, people have to take a bus via Elgin.
Moray councillor John Divers (Elgin South, Labour) raised concerns about the number of patients who could join the Maryhill practice in Elgin.
Mr Divers said 4500 homes are expected to be built in Elgin over the next few years and that would impact on the town’s health services.
Of the 5699 residents in the Burghead, Cummingston and Hopeman area, 3108 are currently registered with the Lossiemouth practice with 2274 at Maryhill.
A dial-a-bus service was introduced in April to take patients from the villages to appointments in Lossiemouth between 10am and 2.30pm, Monday to Friday.
Members were keen to see that service continue beyond its initial four-month period.
Iain Macdonald, the locality manager with Health and Social Care Moray, was asked about the possibility of a mobile clinic to service communities.
He said: "The benefit of a mobile unit is it would go out to different communities, not just to Burghead and Hopeman, but to Cummingston and Duffus.
"It wouldn’t be an immediate solution but it is being discussed in Moray.
"This is a challenging situation but it’s one that we have to find a solution to."
To bring the two village surgeries up to health care standards is estimated it would take £116,000 to upgrade the Burghead premises and £142,000 to fix issues at Hopeman, excluding VAT.
Previously, both operated on a part-time basis, seeing a combined total of 114 patients a week.
During the community engagement exercise 490 responses were received to a questionnaire.
A total of 226 people said access to a branch surgery would improve their health and wellbeing.
Some 251 felt children were missing out by not having a GP service in Burghead and Hopeman, while 298 said it was important for older people to have branch surgeries nearby.
NHS Grampian rents the Burghead surgery on Grant Street at a cost of just over £5840 a year. The lease is due to expire in 2023.
The Hopeman branch on Harbour Street is GP owned.
No action has been taken to find other suitable buildings in the villages.
