SOME 200 people attended a public meeting at St Mary Magdelen church hall on Thursday to discuss the future of the Osler House surgery, which has been hit by staff shortages and illness.

Two doctors have left in recent months and another two have undergone major surgery, meaning services at the practice, which serves 12,000 patients at both Osler House and the Florence Nightingale centre in Church Langley, have been reduced.

The three remaining doctors recently decided to centralise their services at Church Langley, meaning Potter Street patients have to travel further to see a GP.

Harlow MP Bill Rammell said: "Permanent closure of Osler House is simply not an option in my view. Potter Street has an ageing population, which needs its own GPs. If there is any questioning of the long-term future of Osler House, I will be demanding that the trust step in and run a GP practice from Osler House."

Primary care trust chief executive Pam Court said: "The view of the practice was that the situation could not continue, hence the emergency situation now."

She said the trust had offered to take over in the interim and that it was committed to keeping services at Osler House. A meeting to discuss the future of Osler House was held on Monday.

Two options are available: continue running services in Potter Street and recruit more GPs, or if the practice is no longer able to cover services on both sites, then it should be run from Church Langley.

If this were to happen then a public consultation would be carried out leaving a further two options.

The first would be to see whether another practice in Harlow could take over the management of Osler House, or if not, the trust would take over.

Mrs Court added: "There's no option on my list that says close Osler House."

In the meantime, the trust is urging people to make use of NHS Direct, the Harlow walk-in centre in Hamstel Road and local pharmacists.

July 16, 2002 11:00