AFTER the recent front page article in the Advertiser about the Andover Health Centre, some patients have expressed concern that the Andover Health Centre Medical Practice (AHCMP) is threatened with closure.

Thankfully this is not the case.

Like most GP practices we rent our premises and our rent is reimbursed by the Government. In the past this rent came via Hampshire Primary Care Trust (PCT).

For a number of years the practice was in negotiations with the PCT to increase the sum reimbursed so that the practice could rent a larger building or construct a new health centre on the hospital site.

Following the chaotic reorganisation of the NHS in 2012, when PCTs were disbanded, any progress in these negotiations was lost.

We have been forced to restart negotiations with a new body called NHS England. Getting funding for GP premises is a lengthy and complex process made more difficult by the lack of money for primary care in the NHS. NHS England has many other priorities.

In recent years many other GP surgeries in Hampshire moved to new buildings with PCT support. Andover has been overlooked despite its recent growth.

One of the stumbling blocks is that the rent which NHS England is prepared to reimburse is based on historical precedent.

The previous owners of the Health Centre, Winchester & Eastleigh Healthcare Trust, did not increase the rent on our premises for many years as they were reluctant to invest in a failing building. Consequently, despite being the largest practice in town with 14,500 patients, the rent pot available to us is very small. It would seem fairer that the rent bore some relation to the number of patients registered, but this is not the case.

We continue to lobby NHS England over this issue and we continue to offer the best service we can despite the limitations of our building. We have very little space so rooms are used to their maximum capacity and we are unable to offer some services we would like to offer.

Thankfully our patients have been prepared to put up with the inconvenience and our list size continues to grow.

We are grateful to Sir George Young MP, who has taken up our case with NHS England and pressed the responsible minister for some action. We have not lost hope that one day NHS England might look favourably on the health needs of the people of Andover and we might be able to practise medicine in a building that is suitable for the demands of 21st century healthcare.

The Partners of Andover Health Centre Medical Practice