Update on Greenfield GP Surgery 'under threat of closure'

Greenfield GP surgery, in Saddleworth, was facing a complicated situation with multiple organisations responsible for it remaining open.

However, it is understood after Pennine Medical Centre, the integrated care board and NHS estates came together to agree a way forward, a new five-year contact for the building has been settled.

Cllrs Helen Bishop (left) and Amy Wrigley at the Greenfield surgery (Image: Google Street View/Sam Al-Hamdani)

Lib Dem Cllr Helen Bishop, who represents Saddleworth South, said: “The problem was that responsibility for the practice staying open lay with so many different people that Greenfield Surgery was in danger of falling through the cracks.

“We had to get everyone together fast, confirm the importance of the surgery staying open, seek agreement on a contract with the landlord, and identify where the funding was coming from.

“The threat of closure – the legal process of removing the surgery as a tenant had already started – certainly sharpened people’s minds. Prior to this intervention, it had been drifting for months. In just a few weeks, we got agreement.

Greenfield surgery otherwise known as Pennine Medical Centre (Image: Google Street View/Sam Al-Hamdani)

“Our whole focus was on the four and a half thousand people who would have lost their GP. We couldn’t – and didn’t – let that happen.”

GP Bal Duper, who runs the Greenfield practice, said: “I don’t think we would have got so far in such a short time, with the deadline pending, without the input of the local councillors.

"We’re now going to work with the landlord to improve the facilities that are there for our patients.”

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