MORE than 100 anxious residents made an impassioned plea to keep their rural dispensary open at a public meeting on Thursday night.

Residents of St John’s Chapel and the surrounding communities flocked to the meeting organised by North West Durham MP Laura Pidcock.

Earlier this month, patients of The Weardale Practice learned they would have to make round trips of up to 22 miles to collect prescriptions following the decision to close the dispensary at the St John’s Chapel surgery.

The news caused great concern among residents, especially among older people, many of whom do not drive and rely on public transport, which has also been cut in recent years.

Last week, Weardale Practice managing partner Vicky Watson said the closure was due to staff shortages and the failure to recruit another dispenser, despite advertising.

And Ms Watson, along with a team of the surgery’s doctors and representatives of the Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS England, came under fire from residents at the meeting where they were accused of treating the closure as a “fait accompli”.

Dr Ben Rowley, executive partner at the practice, said the dispensary is “close to all our hearts” and apologised for the closure but said it was a last resort as the practice was unable to deliver a safe service.

Stating that 1,200 patients would be affected, Dr Rowley said: “It’s not a decision we have taken lightly but one we have been forced to make because we are unable to provide a safe or effective service.”

However, several residents accused the practice of bad management and said they did not believe the job had been advertised enough - a claim the surgery denied.

Weardale county councillors John Shuttleworth and Anita Savory also urged the practice to delay the closure to give time for a replacement to be found.

Cllr Shuttleworth said: “This is about the NHS and doctors taking away from the community and I’m not happy about it.”

Cllr Savory added: “Those patients that live at the top of the dale are equally important as those that live further down.

“As a practice you have a duty of care to your patients and this whole escapade has had short notice, short service and patients are getting short changed. It’s always the same excuse.”

Frosterley resident Carol Berry asked why sealed prescriptions could not be delivered to the village surgery from a dispensary in Stanhope and handed out but Dr Stephen Lumb, who has been at the surgery for 30 years, said the method was “not now legally allowable” and all prescriptions had to be given directly to the patients.

Another resident said: “This [decision] is all part of this pattern of little things gradually disappearing; drip drip drip and then we will be left with nothing and we are aware of that, all of us.”

Stuart Findlay, the CCG clinical chairman, said the decision was not related to money.

He said: "From a CCG point of view this is one of the best performing practices - you are very fortunate to have the number of GPs up here and the number of younger GPs you have is incredible."

He added: “I think they have struggled for many years to provide a dispensing service and have not taken the decision lightly.”

A petition against the closure - with more than 300 signatures - was also handed in to the practice managers.