A senior GP has pledged that services at a surgery in Popley are now "better than business as usual" after its shock closure last week.

As previously reported, Shakespeare Road Medical Practice had to close its doors last Wednesday after a build-up of short-term pressures.

It meant that all routine appointments were cancelled until the end of last week, with only urgent, same day issues being dealt with on Thursday and Friday.

But now, the organisation responsible for GP services in the county has confirmed that routine appointments have resumed at the surgery.

Dr Matt Nisbet, associate clinical director of Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group, said that the temporary closure was "regrettable".

"Whilst it was regrettable that the surgery closed for a day, the patients who are registered there were never without GP services," he told The Gazette on Tuesday morning.

"For people with urgent problems it was possible for them to be seen and the CCG acted really quickly in partnership with other organisations across our healthcare system to put systems in place to ensure people could be seen if they needed to be.

"From Monday this week, it’s absolutely back to business as normal. In fact, we think it’s going to be better than business as usual really because Bramblys [Grange's] intention is to improve the quality of services provided there."

Bramblys Grange, another of the town's practice's had announced their intention to takeover the running of Shakespeare House, formerly known as Bermuda and Marlowe, in November last year.

The Bermuda and Marlowe partners handed back their contract when it expired on March 31, with Bramblys Grange taking over the contract temporarily until October.

They will then take it on permanently, and all Bermuda and Marlowe patients will be registered with the practice.

Talking about the reasons behind the closure, Dr Nisbet added: "Any merger of this scale is enormously complex, it would be surprising if there weren’t bumps in the road and glitches.

"NHS staff everywhere are under a great deal of pressure, as well as providing the normal services that we all rely on, we’re trying to catch up on things put off from last year and running the biggest vaccination programme the country has ever seen.

"It was a cumulative pressure of all of those things, that led to Bramblys Grange feeling that the right thing for them to do was to pause, take stock and to plan what they were going to do moving forward to improve things for the patients of Popley."

Dr Nisbet has also pledged to review the communication with patients surrounding the closure, and "learn lessons", after the CCG was criticised last week.