A COMMUNITY health clinic is set to close in the next three months.

Health services provided at Framwellgate Moor Clinic will be relocated to alternative venues in Durham.

Councillor Mark Wilkes, who represents the area, said he was “furious” when he found out about the plans by accident.

He said: “Having listened to what I’ve been told I don’t believe they have done enough to justify this move.

“This clinic is is an excellent location that’s easy to access, on a bus route with reasonable parking.

“It doesn’t seem to stack up. I’m not convinced it will stack up financially and it certainly doesn’t stack up for patients and it doesn’t match the NHS’s philosophy of providing services as close to people as possible.”

A spokesperson for the North Durham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is responsible for organising local health services, said: “To ensure that we make the best use of resources to support offering the best care to patients we are constantly reviewing the services we offer and where they are provided from.

“NHS North Durham CCG has decided to relocate these existing services which means we are able to spend more money on patient care instead of on an under-utilised building.”

Questionnaires were handed out to patients last summer to find out their views on moving services, to which 248 people responded.

The CCG spokesperson added: “We listened to hundreds of patients towards the end of last summer to address their concerns about where their care will be delivered from and what was important for them.

“Over the next three months services will relocate to other sites within Durham and, in many cases, patients will have more choice of clinic dates and times when booking appointments.”

Concerns about the clinic’s future were raised in 2016, when the CCG was looking at whether services could be delivered from alternative premises or whether the building in Front Street could be used more fully.