THE GP in charge of the Popley surgery that was forced to temporarily close on Wednesday has apologised.

Dr Andrew Bill, managing partner at Bramblys Grange, who has taken over Shakespeare Road Medical Practice, said that the partners' immediate task was restarting services and that they are "committed" to "improving care for our patients".

The closure has been blamed on a build-up of short-term pressure connected with the planned takeover.

Patients were turned away on Wednesday morning and were unable to access prescriptions and appointments.

The Clinical Commissioning Group, responsible for primary care services in the town, has since been criticised for its communication with patients over the temporary closure.

It was at 5pm on Wednesday when the CCG issued a two-line statement confirming the closure, and there was no confirmation as to the reasons why until the following day. There was no confirmation the surgery had reopened until 11am on Thursday.

Patients complained that they were left in the dark over the closure and what to do in the mean time, whilst one councillor labelled the communication issues as "outrageous".

In a statement on Thursday evening, Dr Bill said: “We deeply regret that we could not open the surgery yesterday, and apologise to everyone affected – it was the last thing we would have wanted.

“Our immediate task was to restart our services as soon as possible, so we’re delighted that we were able to have staff on site to help people needing urgent treatment or advice today, and plan to offer all routine services as well, early next week.

“When we took on this new practice we committed ourselves to improving care for our patients – we have a strong track record of doing that at Bramblys Grange and believe we can do it here.

"Taking on such a big task is difficult, but with the support of our local NHS partners we want to put the short-term pressures behind us and rapidly build better services in the long-term.”

Meanwhile, Dr Matt Nisbet, GP and clinical lead for partnerships at the Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight CCG, added: "It is good news that the practice has reopened, and will be back operating fully by early next week.

“We continue to offer our support to the new team running the practice and everyone is focused on providing the best possible patient care."

The surgery reopened to urgent appointments on Thursday, and will resume routine appointments next week.

Bramblys Grange was given a 'caretaker' contract to run services at Shakespeare Road and Fort Hill in Winklebury until October, when their planned takeover was due to begin.

The news was announced in November 2020 after the partners at Bermuda and Marlowe handed back their contract.