East Cambridgeshire District Council is urgently looking into the announced closure of the GP practice at Priors Field on 31 March 2023.  

We understand this is due to the current GPs retiring and the practice being unable to find new doctors who want to take on the surgery. While we expect to be formally notified of the closure by the NHS on Monday, we are concerned about the impact on residents and the speed at which it is happening.

The Council has already contacted Stephen Barclay, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire, which includes Sutton, to ask him urgently to look into the issue.

Leader of the Council, Anna Bailey, said “We all know the NHS is a stretched resource and I am extremely concerned about the impact of the closure of the GP practice on residents.  

“Fenland Group Practice, which runs the surgery, and NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough are committed to ensuring all patients have access to high quality GP services and care in the future and our understanding is that they are working to provide a smooth transition for patients to an alternative GP practice.

“However, it is inevitable that many village residents who use the surgery and do not have easy access to a vehicle will be concerned about which new GP practice they are being allocated to, whether and how they have a say in that, and how they will access their new service.

"With stretched local resources, I am also very concerned about the effect of taking on large numbers of new patients on other GP practices."

“GPs are independent practices and while we as a Council, cannot affect the decisions of the Fenland Group Practice we are doing everything we can to raise this at the highest level of Government and we are also exploring any other community support we can provide.”

In the meantime, residents can find out more information on the Fenland Group Practice website.

You can attend a drop-in session at the surgery on the following days:

Tuesday 7 March between 10:00am and 1:00pm

Wednesday 8 March between 1:00pm until 4:00pm