Important Patient and Stakeholder Announcement – 29th November 2023

Date of issue: Wednesday 29 November from 2pm

Lynton Health Centre

We are very sad to announce that after two and a half years Symphony Healthcare Services will no longer run the Lynton Health Centre GP service after 30 April 2024.

Symphony Healthcare Services took on the Lynton Health Centre contract in July 2021 to support the ongoing sustainability of the surgery, with the hope that there would be further opportunities within Devon for Symphony to run local services (alongside the ones they run in Somerset) increasing their resilience and making the service stronger for the future.

GP practices across the county have experienced significant challenges in recruiting GPs and despite our best efforts to recruit into our vacant clinical posts and secure a new provider to run the service, we have been unsuccessful. This means it’s no longer possible for us to run this service in Lynton.

We have therefore informed our commissioner, NHS Devon, that we will be handing back the Lynton Health Centre contract next year. NHS Devon is responsible for contracting and monitoring local GP services.

We are incredibly thankful for the ongoing support from the Lynton Health Centre team who are instrumental to the care provided to the local population under Symphony Healthcare Services. Symphony also wish to extend these thanks to the patients of Lynton for their support over the last few years.

We appreciate that this will be unsettling, but we assure you that NHS Devon recognises the service is well-respected and well used by people from the Lynton area. They are actively pursuing a suitable alternative to ensure GP provision remains available locally. This involves working with local healthcare partners to determine the best way to maintain high quality GP services.

We hope that this service will continue uninterrupted, with a new provider, however this is still in the early planning stages.

Nothing changes right now. Please continue to access the service in the normal way.

Symphony Healthcare Services will continue to run the surgery until 30 April 2024 and during this time patients will remain registered with the surgery unless they decide to register elsewhere themselves.

Please do not contact the practice about this as phone lines need to remain free for patient care. Once there is an update or any further information, NHS Devon will keep the local community updated about the next steps.

STATEMENT from NHS Devon

A spokesperson for NHS Devon said: “Symphony Healthcare Services Ltd., who currently run Lynton Health Centre, has confirmed it is unable to continue with the GP contract from the end of April 2024 due to the ongoing challenges recruiting clinical staff to the area and being unable to secure a new provider to run the service.”

“As the commissioner for local GP services, NHS Devon recognises the service is well-respected and well used by people from the Lynton area and is actively pursuing a suitable alternative to ensure GP provision remains available locally. This involves working with local system partners to determine the best way to maintain high quality GP services.

 “As this involves negotiations and potential impacts around procurement regulations, we cannot at this time discuss potential providers or further details, but we will update the community once we have new information.”