A PETITION has been presented to East Surrey MP Sam Gyimah expressing concern over the financial future of a doctors' surgery in Horley.
Members of the Birchwood Patient Support Group, which represents patients at Birchwood Medical Centre, collected 1,811 signatures calling for a fairer financial deal for the Kings Road surgery as well as other patients living in Reigate and Banstead.
The petition said the group had been made aware the amount of funding for primary care, which encompasses healthcare provided by GPs, is "dropping".
It added: "We are unsure how our surgery would manage the current excellent services without withdrawing or downgrading [services] to the 15,000 plus patients at Birchwood."
Group representatives handed the petition to Mr Gyimah outside the surgery on December 12. They asked him to use his influence to ensure appropriate funding.
But NHS England, which allocates the funding, said it had not received any complaints from Birchwood's management.
Dr Elango Vijaykumar, a senior partner at Birchwood, said he could not comment on future funding but told the Mirror: "We are one of the biggest surgeries in Horley and Smallfield and we have no intention to cut any services at this given moment."
The petition also voiced fears over what Birchwood Patient Support Group perceives to be an "anomaly of funding" for patients in different parts of Surrey. It says East Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), responsible for buying healthcare for the Reigate and Banstead borough, receives less cash from NHS England than other CCGs in Surrey.
The petition says: "We did raise this matter at the CCG AGM in Reigate last September but unfortunately it would appear this particular anomaly is constantly falling 'on deaf ears'."
But an NHS England spokesman said funding was calculated using a formula which "takes into consideration populations to calculate the total funding each practice receives, and reflects a range of factors such as patient demographics, mortality rates and rurality."
Dr Patrick Kerr, a GP and assistant chairman of East Surrey CCG, said: "We welcome the chance to engage with our patients, GP practice members and NHS England about the concerns raised in this petition about equity of funding for our population. There is no doubt that we are operating in a very challenging financial environment and like many public services, have significant savings to achieve while maintaining high quality services for our patients."
Mr Gyimah said: "East Surrey CCG is going through a challenging time, and has so far done a great job in maintaining the level of service [for] patients. I am raising this issue with the Health Secretary as a matter of priority, and rest assured I will continue to fight for fairer funding."
