A South London woman would be left "devastated" if plans to close her GP surgery go ahead as she fears her care will get worse and other practices will be overwhelmed with new patients. Sarah Stroud-Wykes, 49, slammed proposals to close Trinity Medical Centre in Balham as "ridiculous" and raised concerns about the impact on patients.

It comes after the surgery on Balham High Road was rated 'inadequate' twice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under its old service provider. Tudor Lodge Health Centre took over in September 2022 as a temporary solution but the caretaking contract is due to end soon and plans have been put forward by NHS South West London to close Trinity Medical Centre permanently and ask patients to register at nearby surgeries.

Ms Stroud-Wykes, 49, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the surgery is the best she has ever been to and should stay open. Ms Stroud-Wykes has multiple health conditions, takes around 18 tablets a day and said thousands of patients will feel "let down" if the closure goes ahead.

Trinity Medical Centre on Balham High Road. Credit: Charlotte Lillywhite/LDRS

She called the plans "ridiculous" and said: "I don't know where to start… I've got serious medical problems, I've got many diseases, many conditions, that affect the kidneys, liver, you name it I have it, so I've been with GPs over 15 years since I started getting ill – I've never met such lovely doctors."

She added: "To find a good doctor's surgery is just second to none. I would be devastated, I would be lost."

Ms Stroud-Wykes has mobility problems so the location of the surgery is important, with Trinity Medical Centre close to her home, but she is mainly concerned it would take months for a new practice to get to know her properly which she feels would affect the quality of her care.

She said: "I don't want to go to another doctor's because then what happens to people like me is they don't know my history… and it takes so long for a GP surgery to actually get on board with the patient itself.

"You have limited time and they don't know your history and, from my point of view… I'm at where I should be with the doctor's and… they know me, they know my condition… to join a new practice it would take months for them to [get to] where I can feel confident."

If Trinity Medical Centre closes, Ms Stroud-Wykes believes other practices will be overwhelmed by new patients and the "fantastic" Trinity Pharmacy next door will be affected negatively as "they go hand-in-hand, all the people that get medicines from that doctor's go there".

She said: "Personally, from one patient's experience, it would absolutely disrupt my life, disrupt my meds and my medical history will kind of just go and I'm scared to death to go to a new practice… you're just another number and with the amount of people that are going to be sifted to all these practices I just worry that my care's going to be sadly really greatly reduced regardless of whether I stay with that pharmacy and for mobility issues."

Sarah Stroud-Wykes at Trinity Medical Centre on Balham High Road. Credit: Charlotte Lillywhite/LDRS

Jaymeena Amin, pharmacist at Trinity Pharmacy, also called for the surgery to stay open and said the new provider has been running it well. She raised concerns other surgeries will not be able to cope with an influx of patients and would be forced to rely more on phone calls than face-to-face appointments.

Ms Amin said: "We just feel that all these patients who are here, when they go to the other surgeries the other surgeries are going to be overwhelmed… and that the patient care wouldn't be the same."

She said: "Patients have come here and said they have gone to the nearby surgeries and been told no, they can't register. I've had elderly people who've said they don't want to move. I had a mum of three kids who said she had no problem with the surgery and she doesn't want to be moved further down, taking her kids, when the surgery's right there." 

She said the closure would affect the pharmacy, adding: "If [patients] go to different surgeries who knows where their prescriptions will be sent. People have even been ringing us to ask: 'Have you heard? We want to know because we haven't moved yet.' They're anxious to know what's going on."

A spokesperson for NHS South West London said: "Trinity Medical Centre was rated 'inadequate' twice by the health care regulator the Care and Quality Commission (CQC) and deemed unable to provide safe and effective care.

"We are proposing to close the practice and ask patients to re-register nearby, with extra support in place for the most vulnerable – there are 10 practices within a one-mile radius and an additional 21 practices within two miles. We're grateful to Tudor Lodge for urgently stepping in to allow for plans to be made for the future – like us, Tudor Lodge don't think extending this current arrangement is a viable long-term solution.

"We are carefully considering the feedback we are receiving before making a decision and will continue to keep all registered patients up to date with any developments."