Pontesbury Medical Practice and Worthen Medical Practice formally merged to form the new Pontesbury and Worthen Medical Practice on 1st April 2021. There has been a huge amount of ‘behind the scenes’ work by our management teams and GPs to make this merger a success, and that work is ongoing. Our aim being to build on the successes in delivering high quality primary care services achieved by both practices, and ensure that we continue have a resilient and future-proof local service for our patients.
For technical and logistical reasons, a full integration of our IT systems can only occur after a short time has elapsed. So for the early weeks in April, patients will notice little difference other than seeing some new faces at both sites.
Once we have our IT and communications fully integrated at the end of this month, the benefits of the merger will become more obvious to our patients. With an integrated booking system, patients will have a broader choice of clinicians, and the option of appointments with clinicians at either site where necessary.
Our dispensary integration will improve efficiency and responsiveness, with all of the repeat medications being prepared at our large dispensary on the Pontesbury site. Patients who have previously collected their medication from Worthen will continue to do so should they choose to. Urgently required prescriptions issued in surgery at Worthen will continue to be dispensed at the time from Worthen.
Both surgeries have experienced unprecedented levels of demand for appointments over the last 12 months, and this continues to make keeping up with demand extremely challenging. The COVID 19 pandemic has led to a large number of hospital appointments being cancelled and those patients affected are requiring significant additional Primary Care support. We have been extremely grateful not only for the support and understanding of our patients throughout the COVID 19 pandemic, but also for the widespread enthusiasm and constructive contributions to our merger.
