Decision report 201104552

Summary

Mr C complained that the board's community health partnership (CHP) did not follow consultation guidelines for the closure of his local GP practice. Mr C also complained about the standard of numerical data that the CHP used to support the closure, and that the CHP did not provide clinical or financial reasons for the closure. We did not uphold Mr C's complaints. Our investigation found that the guidelines did not go into detail about the aspects of the consultation Mr C was unhappy with, and although Mr C disagreed with the way the consultation was carried out, we found that the CHP had followed available guidelines. These did not require the CHP to provide clinical or financial reasons to patients, and we found that the reasons for the closure had been explained to patients and local consultees. The CHP did not, however, give the proper context for figures quoted in their letters, and we drew their attention to this as communication of data must be clear, given the potentially emotive nature of proposals to close surgeries. However, the data gathered by the CHP was recorded correctly in a summary of patient consultation responses, which was provided to the CHP's management when making their decision on the closure.