A more sustainable future for Alston Medical Practice has been secured.
Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC) will be taking over the management responsibilities from Tuesday 1st March 2022.
Patients shouldn’t see any changes. The Alston GP Dr Claire Corlett and the wider team will continue with appointments at the Practice or online or on the telephone as they are currently.
Dr Claire Corlett said: “It has been a very challenging time for the team here, we all want to see a bright and sustainable future for our practice here in Alston, and we are delighted to be working with CHoC to allow this.
“There won’t be any big changes to the team here that you see. Myself and Tania, our practice manager, are still going to be working here, and our fantastic wider team will still continue to look after you and be your usual point of contact.
“The input of CHoC will mean we will have much more support and a more robust team to draw upon and you may see some new faces too.”
As well as delivering Cumbria’s out of hours GP services, CHoC has been running the practice at Glenridding for several years, and recently taken on the Windermere and Bowness Practice at Goodly Dale.
Susan Blakemore, chief executive of CHoC, said: “We are delighted to join together with the practice team at Alston. We see this as an opportunity to work in partnership with the practice team to continue to provide the community with outstanding primary care services. The challenges of rural general practice are close to our heart as a provider of primary care services across Cumbria.”
Alston isn’t alone in struggling to replace a GP Partner when they retire, many practices in Cumbria and across of the UK find similar challenges. There are a growing number of models being developed and delivered to sustain primary care services. This model will support clinicians to join without the pressure of investing or taking on significant management responsibilities.