Burnham-on-Sea MP James Heappey has been clear there is 'still work to do' to ensure Burnham Medical Centre improves to the level it needs to, after a challenging few years for the practice.
Mr Heappey has been working closely with Symphony Healthcare over the past few months, as they formally took over the running of the practice in Love Lane last month.
It followed a CQC inspection, which placed Burnham in Special Measures and it has since become clear how close the practice came to closing.
Mr Heappey has received a huge amount of casework regarding the practice from concerned constituents about the standard of care, and so the MP made sure to ensure measures were being put in place to ensure it thrives and delivers for the patients in Burnham-on-Sea.
Symphony and management at the practice spent an hour last week showing the improvements which have been made to Mr Heappey, whilst also being clear there is still more to be done.
Following the visit and meeting with staff, Mr Heappey said: "The job is not yet done – no-one here is pretending that it is – but to consider that this practice was very close to being closed down if it weren’t for the incredible work that Symphony did and a handful of individuals this practice would not have continued to operate. That would have been catastrophic for the town because there are no alternatives.
“Instead, a year on, we are now in a place where the practice is recovering quickly and a lot of the faults that were identified last summer are also resolved. Patient confidence is returning. There is still work to be done – there are problems with primary healthcare nationwide that Burnham won’t be exempt from, but in terms of this practice, it’s an extraordinary journey and a lot of people should be proud of what they have done.”
Mr Heappey will continue to represent constituents' concerns and ensure he is in regular dialogue with the leadership at the practice.
