A RURAL GP practice is set to close its doors for good after plans were backed by health bosses.

Skerne Medical Group (SMG) won support yesterday to shut its Trimdon Village site but lost out on its proposal to close its surgery in Fishburn.

The decision was made at an emergency meeting of NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group’s (DDES CCG) Primary Care Commissioning Committee at Fishburn Youth and Community Centre.

Durham County Councillor for Trimdon and Thornley, Peter Brookes, urged the committee to reconsider, presenting a 410-signature petition from local residents opposing the Trimdon Village closure.

He said: “What we do know is that Trimdon Village has the highest level of deprivation and poverty within the SMG area.

“What we can’t understand is rather than investing in Trimdon Village and finding ways of improving the service in the area of the most health need you want to reduce the service.

“For that reason it really smacks of a business decision that’s being made rather than a decision that’s being made based on the health need of the population.”

Cllr Brookes added the consultation was “flawed” and claimed the GP surgery closing would not solve long-term issues facing the practice.

A consultation originally sought opinions on whether “Trimdon Village surgery and one additional site” should be closed in 2019.

The surgery said this was prompted by a “recruitment crisis” threatening the entire group.

Despite a CCG report acknowledging Trimdon Village residents “suffer from a high level of deprivation” and low car ownership, the committee backed the closure plans for the part-time surgery.

However, the additional application to close the Fishburn site was rejected on the grounds patients “were not properly engaged” as the original consultation letter sent to patients did not reference its closure.

Dr Stewart Findlay, chief officer of DDES CCG, stressed closure plans were needed to protect services in the area.

“The fact remains, this practice can’t retain doctors and the reason is because they have too many sites and that is something we’re seeing across the entire region at the moment,” he said.

“This is not unique to SMG and I think we will be getting more and more requests for branch closures as we go through the next few years because this problem is not going to go away no matter what we do.”

Mr Findlay also said the suggestion the Trimdon closure was a business decision was “very wrong” and stressed the practice would make no gain from closing services.

As part of the decision, the committee called for consultation around SMG’s future plans.

Partner at SMG, Dr Christine Hearmon said SMG would continue to work with patients and the CCG moving forward to create a “future-proof service” for patients.

Surgeries in Sedgefield, Fishburn and Trimdon Colliery remain open into 2019.