AN URGENT call for action to make sure people in Beggarwood have a primary care service is being made by the town’s MP.

As previously reported in the Gazette, fresh concerns have been raised about the future of Beggarwood Surgery in Broadmere Road, just as the area could gain nearly 1,800 houses from new housing developments.

Now, Basingstoke MP, Maria Miller, has escalated the ongoing issues to the government and has written to the secretary of state for health and social care, Matt Hancock, and the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, James Brokenshire, asking them to intervene.

The surgery has come in for criticism for a number of years for the way it is being run by Cedar Medical Group, with a search to find a new provider for the service starting three months ago.

However, the North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), has yet to find a suitable provider.

Mrs Miller said: “I have been pushing the CCG to find a suitable provider and deliver the high quality of care that people of Beggarwood deserve.

“What I have found is there no forward planning from the NHS, there are these plans to bring thousands of new residents into the area, yet the primary care facility could potentially close.”

She added: “I have written to the secretary of state for health and social care and secretary of state for housing, communities to show that this is an urgent matter that needs to be resolved.

“It is wrong for the NHS to have this short-term approach and we need to make sure that this is something that is addressed for now and the future.”

If the CCG is unable to find a suitable provider in three months, the Beggarwood Surgery could face closure, leaving thousands of patients without access to a GP.

Zara Hyde-Peters, managing director at the North Hampshire CCG, said: “We are continuing to look at the future arrangements for Beggarwood Surgery. The surgery remains open and is providing services.

“Finding a new provider to look after the patients from Beggarwood Surgery and provide high-quality primary care services remains our shared priority.”