Published: 23 February, 2012

by TOM FOOT

PATIENTS protesting outside a Camden Town surgery on Monday warned that they would not let it close without a fight.

The Camden Road Surgery will shut on April 13 after its private operator, The Practice, failed to negotiate a lease extension or find alternative premises nearby.

Patients said they owed it to Dr Abraham Silverman and Dr Robert Harbord, who had clocked up almost 100 years service between them at the surgery, to stop its closure.

Violet Curson, 82, said: “I have been coming here for 63 years. I live up the road and it’s difficult for me to go a long way away. My husband needs to go to the doctor in a taxi. It’s expensive, it can cost £5 to £10. There are lots of other people who will really struggle to go to other surgeries that are further away.”

Many patients said they had not received letters about the surgery’s closure – in just seven weeks time. Places need to be found at other practices for 4,700 patients.

Teresa Lynagh, who suffers from bipolar disorder, said: “I have lived here for 28 years. The GP is my only point of call. Mental health is a big issue with this surgery. You have to be careful uprooting people like that.”

Pat Morgan, who wrote to The Practice outlining her concerns about changes at the surgery in November, said: “We want Camden Road Surgery to remain open, in another premises if necessary, properly manned by experienced, full-time, regular doctors who can carry forward the practice as it should have been in the first place.”

Pharmacist Jagdish Vaghela, of Biotech Pharmacy in Camden Road, said: “The bulk of my business comes from prescriptions. We will struggle. We have had a great rapport with our patients – it’s like a family. It is a shame to see it disintegrate. I hope they will come back to us.”

Labour MP Frank Dobson and Cantelowes councillors will be at Maiden Lane Community Centre, in St Paul’s Crescent, at 8pm on March 13 to discuss the closure with patients.

NEW JOURNAL COMMENT: A foretaste of marketised health on our doorsteps (click here...)