THE TAKEOVER of a surgery that is responsible for the healthcare of almost 13,500 patients in Basingstoke has collapsed, with bosses blaming a failure to recruit enough clinical staff.

Shakespeare Road Medical Practice was part-way through a takeover by the doctors that run Bramblys Grange in the town centre. After they took over temporarily in April, they were due to run the site permanently from the start of this month.

But the partners have decided that they do not want to continue running the Popley surgery and its sister site at Fort Hill after the end of November, citing a struggle to recruit clinical staff among other reasons.

They have reassured their patients that there will not be a repeat of scenes in April, where the surgery suddenly shut as short-term pressures connected to the takeover built up.

You can read the full story in this week's Gazette, out October 28.

Also in this week's paper:

  • A brave ten-year-old girl from Basingstoke is the oldest child in the world to receive a donor heart that did not match her blood type. We spoke to her mum Jenny!
  • Is it to little to late for Plan B? We spoke to residents in the town centre who have said they think Plan B is “inevitable” and more should be done to stop the spread of Covid-19.
  • A family run bike store who were evicted from their long-term home by Vivid a year ago have reopened in a “bigger and better” store!
  • The borough council is still planning to introduce parking charges to Eastrop Park, in a move labelled as a “quiet suppression of democracy”. We spoke to councillors to get their thoughts!
  • See inside Italian restaurant Zizzi after it has opened for business again this week after being closed for over two weeks in Basingstoke
  • Plus: All the latest from Basingstoke Magistrates' Court
  • Two pages of your letters to the editor
  • The latest business news
  • Three pages of entertainment news
  • Two pages of Camera Club pictures where you can see the best of October’s Autumn colours theme that will take your breath away
  • Four pages of local sports news
  • And much more!

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