Updated information on the future of our services in our Lowdham Premises building.

Dear Patients,

On the 17th of October we wrote to update everyone on the need to move our services from our Lowdham premises to Burton Joyce on a temporary basis. This was after the CQC raised safety concerns with the building. Before making this decision, we worked tirelessly with the other parties involved with the Lowdham building but were unable to secure agreement for improvements that would make our patients safe. This included agreement by the landlord for structural improvements to utilities needed for safety. This meant we had to make a very difficult decision to relocate our services temporarily, a decision we did not make lightly. Having been a GP in this area and looking after the patients of Lowdham for over 16 years it was difficult.

Since then, we have continued discussions with the Landlord but achieved no solutions that would make the building safe. It is with deep sadness that as such we must confirm we will be permanently moving out of the Lowdham building in order to make sure we are providing a safe environment for our patients and our staff. I cannot in good conscious do any different and we do not feel the building is currently safe. Our last day in the building will be the 16th of November 2022 although we have moved all our services to alternative solutions already.

We have shared our plans with the Care Quality Commission (our regulator) and the Integrated Commissioning Board (our contract provider) and all parties are happy and are supportive of our plan. Although we are having to move out of the current building, I must stress we are not leaving Lowdham or our Lowdham patients. My team and I care passionately about our entire practice list including patients affected by this difficult situation in Lowdham. As such we have been meeting with our Integrated Commissioning Board teams to ensure we can explore ways to support our patients which includes using other sites in Lowdham for our clinics, making use of medical vans used in the pandemic vaccination campaign to deliver services including our dispensing closer to patients. We have also received assurances from our accountable officer, Amanda Sullivan, that our larger premises plans will be looked at as soon as possible to deliver the premises solution our patients and our staff deserve.

We appreciate this is a worrying time. We would like to reassure our Lowdham patients that we will continue to provide all primary care services to our patients affected by this change. We have prepared a frequently asked question sheet to answer questions that our patients will inevitably have.

With regards to pop up services and clinics in other locations in Lowdham as well as mobile services we will keep all our patients up to date with updates soon.

To book, change or confirm an appointment please call our reception team on 0115 931 2500. When making a new appointment, you will be advised as to which one of the two Burton Joyce locations you will need to attend.

If you need help with travelling to the practices, there are some local options. These include:

·       https://www.nandscvs.org/our-work/door-to-door-service/ or call 01636 311 220 between 10am – 2pm Monday – Friday. Outside of these hours please leave a message on the answer machine and they will get back to you.

·       https://rushcliffecvs.org.uk/voluntary-transport/ or call 0115 969 9060 then press 1 for transport – Monday – Friday 9am – 4pm.

For patients that are more house bound we have planned for increased home visits to cases that are clinically needed so services are universally provided to all. Please contact us if you need a review and are worried about accessing our Burton Joyce buildings.

We continue to be committed to looking after Lowdham patients and our priority, as always, is patient care. Please feel free to contact us if you have any queries or concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Panesar and your team at Ivy Medical Group.