05/04/2024
Proposed Merger - Update for Patients
Results of the Patient Engagement Exercise
Thank you to all patients who provided feedback on the proposed merger of North House Surgery, Park Street Surgery and Ripon Spa Surgery. Over 400 patients attended the Open Morning events held in February and 270 patients provided feedback via the “This Is My View” form. Of those who completed the form, at least 69% in each of the three practices said that they agreed with the proposed merger.
We have listened very carefully to the feedback that we have received, especially concerns about whether patients will still be able to see the same staff and doctors that they have always been able to see. We would like to again reassure patients that there will be no reduction in opening hours, no buildings will close and there will be no staff redundancies.
Ripon Spa Surgery
Unfortunately, during the due diligence process, Ripon Spa Surgery were found to be in an unexpectedly poor financial position. They have permitted us to share this sensitive piece of information. As a result of this situation North House and Park Street partners do not feel able to merge with Ripon Spa at this time and so they will no longer be involved in the merger process.
This is hugely disappointing for all concerned as we have all been working closely on these plans for some time and everyone had been looking forward to working together as part of a larger combined team at Fountains Health.
We still believe that a merger between North House Surgery and Park Street Surgery is a positive option for our practice, its patients and our staff and will still increase our ability to:
Drive excellence in patient care
Safeguard the future of healthcare in Ripon
Enable patients to have a stronger voice
Benefit from economies of scale
We will continue to work closely with our colleagues at Ripon Spa Surgery.
Fountains Health
We have decided to call the proposed new practice Fountains Health.
What will happen next?
The proposed date to merge has been put back to October 2024 to allow us extra time to complete the work that is now needed to enable a smooth merger for both our patients and staff. To help us achieve this, there will be four afternoons over the next six months when the two practices will need to close so that staff can be brought together to complete this important work. During these times, patients will have access to the Out of Hours Service.
We will provide a further update to patients on the progress of the merger in the Summer.
Drs Alistair Ingram, Richard Fletcher, Natalie Batten, Jo Pears and Tom Chiddick
Park Street Surgery
