A councillor says he joined a protest over proposals to close a Burntwood GP surgery after saying he “wasn’t too convinced” by assurances from a health chief.
The facility at the Burntwood Health and Wellbeing Centre has been earmarked to shut in March 2024.
The decision by the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) comes despite a new surgery at neighbouring Cherry Close not being likely to open until 2025.
It will mean around 5,000 patients will need to be dispersed to other sites across the town instead once the closure takes place.
An ICB chief told members of Lichfield District Council’s overview and scrutiny committee that there was capacity locally to accommodate the additional numbers, adding that support would be given to patients needing to switch.
But Cllr Wai-Lee Ho, Conservative representative for Highfield ward, said he had decided to join local residents who protested against the plans over the weekend.
The member of the overview and scrutiny committee told Lichfield Live:
“At the last meeting I demanded assurances from the ICB telling them that I needed assurances that there would be no disruption to patient care.
“I wasn’t too convinced that I got the level of assurance I had hoped for so I decided to join the protest outside the Burntwood Health and Wellbeing Centre on Saturday morning.
“It was a great turnout with strong cross-party support, which is fantastic because this quite rightly transcends party politics.”
Cllr Wai-Lee Ho, Lichfield District Council
Cllr Ho’s decision comes after Cllr Mike Wilcox, chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee, said the group remained “extremely concerned” despite the assurances from the ICB.
But Michael Galvin, who will represent Labour in the Summerfield and All Saints ward at the local elections in May, said the Conservative councillors should not be surprised by the impact of their party’s national decisions on local health provision.
“The NHS is being stripped to the bone by this Tory government, but what surprised me was the local Tory councillors positioning themselves near the front of the protest.”
Michael Galvin
