THOUSANDS of patients must find a new GP due to the impending closure of a busy healthcare centre.

The Stockton NHS Health Care Centre (Tithebarn) will close at the end of October following repeated attempts to find a provider to take it over after its urgent care service was withdrawn..

More than 2,000 patients registered at the practice, which is based in the Hardwick area of Stockton, are now being informed of its impending closure.

The announcement comes after four attempts to find an operator willing to run the centre.

The centre’s urgent care service was withdrawn and integrated with services at the University Hospital of North Tees and the University Hospital of Hartlepool in April 2017.

Prior to that, patients were told that services for registered and walk-in patients would be separated and services for registered patients would be retained in Hardwick via a branch surgery of an existing GP practice.

However, despite repeated appeals, the CCG was unable to find a practice willing to provide the branch surgery permanently, either on a full-time or part-time basis.

A temporary contract with the Elm Tree GP practice will end in October.

A spokesman for the NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: “The CCG has unfortunately been unable to secure a provider for a part-time branch service and has no option but to close the practice and ask patients to register with another GP practice.”

He said that the CCG’s priority is now to ensure those patients can access primary health care services, adding:“We would like to convey our disappointment to those patients affected by the closure and for any inconvenience that this will cause them.

“We appreciate that this can be a distressing time for patients, but can assure them that they can continue to access high quality health care services by registering with a nearby practice.”

  • Information about local practices is available on the NHS Choices website at nhs.uk.