HEALTH trust board agreed on Tuesday to recommend that Milverton doctors’ surgery should close, with a few local services remaining but patients transferring to the main practice in Wiveliscombe.

A meeting of the board of Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which manages the Lister House Practice in Wiveliscombe and Milverton, unanimously agreed to submit the plan to NHS England, which will make a final decision by February.

The recommendation is that the Milverton surgery is closed and a prescription collection and delivery services, nurse-led vaccination and health and wellness sessions for people with long term conditions, introduced.

The board meeting followed a formal consultation undertaken during the summer where a total of 274 surveys were received from local residents, 71 per cent of them from Milverton.

“While the proposals will be disappointing to the majority of respondents who wanted the surgery to remain, we hope plans to develop more health services in Milverton will be well received by many in the community,” said Dr Nick Broughton, the trust’s chief executive.

Full report in the Free Press (Oct 27)