SOUTH LAKES MP SUCCESSFUL IN SAVING LOCAL HEALTH CENTRES

Today, Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has expressed his gratitude to the local community following the decision by the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to hand over the contract for the threatened Central Lakes Medical Practice for the long term, after they awarded a GP contract to Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC).

Tim launched the campaign in August last year to keep the health centres in Ambleside and Hawkshead open. The news that this campaign has been successful has been widely welcomed. With the decision by the ICB to hand the contract for the medical practices to CHoC both surgeries will remain open and serving some of the most remote communities in the country.

CHoC already provide out of hours GP services to local communities and run the Goodly Dale Medical Practice in Bowness. The new contract for CHoC to run the surgeries is long-term; the Central Lakes Medical Practice was first threatened due to Government funding cuts, including the removal of the 'Minimum Practice Income Guarantee', a funding arrangement that sustained smaller, rural GP practices.

Speaking on the decision today, Tim said: "I would like to thank everyone who became involved in the campaign. In particular I want to pay tribute to Doctors Cook, Ward, and Davies. Their dedication and service to our community has been immense and I cannot thank them enough.

"It is disgraceful that underfunding of rural GP services led to them having to hand back their contract with the NHS in the first place. However, now that this period of worrying uncertainty is over, it is also right that we celebrate an important success for our communities in the central Lakes.

"We were threatened with the loss of our vital GP surgeries, we stood together, we fought back together, and we won."