OUTREACH doctors' surgeries across Exmoor will become a thing of the past next month after local GPs decided to withdraw the service.

Traditionally, residents in Exford, Wheddon Cross and Winsford have been able to see a doctor in their home village from the Dulverton-based Exmoor Medical Centre.

But following discussions with patients' representatives, doctors from the practice have decided to call time on the surgeries from Friday, July 8.

Instead, patients will have to travel to Dulverton to see their doctor, although arrangements for home visits and the volunteer-run drug delivery service remain unchanged.

In a statement, GPs Andrea Trill, Carol Bird and David Berger said: "The reason for this difficult decision is that it is impossible to offer a high standard of medical care in these village settings.

"Time has moved on for medical practice and we find we now need access to comprehensive patient information and medical equipment, along with the full nursing and administrative resources of the surgery, as well as the computer back-up, in order to deliver the same professional service as we can provide at the Exmoor Medical Centre in Dulverton."

Practice manager Kathryn Kyle said she believed the withdrawal of the surgeries would only inconvenience a small number of patients.

She said the surgery would contact patients which the doctors knew would have difficulty travelling to Dulverton to see if a regular home visit could be arranged instead.

"We want to be flexible about this, but we also want to offer a high quality service.

"We know there is a group of people who don't have transport and we won't be removing any services from them," Mrs Kyle said.

She said anyone with concerns about the loss of the surgeries could contact her at the medical centre on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

But she said despite including her contact details on letters that were sent to all the practice's registered patients informing them of the withdrawal of the village surgeries, no-one had complained.

"I expected my telephone to be ringing off the hook, but I've not had a single call.

"I would urge anyone with any concerns to get in touch with me," she said.

One Exmoor villager, who asked not to be named, told the Free Press she was horrified by the loss of the surgeries and believed it was "the loss of yet another rural service".

"This service has been provided for several years and will be sorely missed.

"This decision was made without consultation with the parish councils and local people have only just received this news, some two months after the decision was taken," she said.

Mrs Kyle said it was unfair to compare doctors' surgeries with village services such as shops and post offices, but accepted there had not been a widespread consultation on the loss of the outreach surgeries.

She said consultations had taken place with the patients' group, although a computer glitch had meant word had not spread much further.

"We did decide not to have a lengthy consultation process and we wanted to contact all our registered patients first.

"We are now in the process of writing letters to the parish councils although I must stress, it did take us a very long time to decide to withdraw the surgeries," Mrs Kyle said.

Cllr Mike Ellicott, the chairman of Exford Parish Council, said he had initially been concerned about the GPs' decision, but after further discussions he accepted the reasons behind it.

"Of course I am sad to see the loss of any rural service and will always fight tooth and nail to keep the services we've got, but I feel this is one that would just be impossible to keep.

"I would love to keep a surgery in the village but I don't think in all honesty that it is feasible any more.

"The doctors need access to all their records and equipment and I do think this is being done to provide a better service.

"I suppose one penalty of living in such beautiful countryside is that you do have to travel to reach certain services," Cllr Ellicott said.