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A village GP practice which had to close today due to staff illness has been criticised by a patient who attempted to make an appointment.

Millbrook Surgery was forced to close on Monday, October 21, due to illness and an ongoing problem of a deficit of doctors on its books.

Darrell Stroud, of Cawsand, suffers from osteoporosis and needs regular medication. He rang the surgery this morning to hear a recorded message that it wasn’t opening.

The former photojournalist asked: “How can a doctor’s say ‘sorry, we are shut’?

“This service is vital to our community. This is a village that has a lot of elderly residents who may have really needed to go to that surgery today.

“Some of their patients have mental health issues – imagine how that feels, it’s almost like saying ‘no one cares’ to someone suffering from such conditions.”

Mr Stroud added: “We pay taxes for this stuff so you expect a system that works. If it’s not working we need to stamp our feet and declare that it works.”

Cornwall Live contacted Millbrook’s parent surgery Rame Group Practice who stated it had to close “due to unforeseen staff illness”.

The surgery stressed that patients in the Millbrook area were being offered alternative appointments at the Pentorr Health practice in Torpoint.

The practice manager said: “Our duty is to ensure the clinical safety of patients so the partners took the decision to close today. Patients needing urgent medical help were able to be seen at our other surgery.

“Patients had been given notice about the closure and explained why. We could not foresee as many staff being off, plus we have GP recruitment issues like a lot of the country. However, we’re still providing a safe service and will be back operating from Millbrook as normal tomorrow.”

The Millbrook surgery started closing on Wednesday afternoons from last month due to recruitment challenges.

Its website states: “We currently have a doctor vacancy together with another colleague commencing maternity leave in September and despite being advertised for the last three months have received no applications and have been unable to secure any regular locum cover, which results in a deficit of two doctors (12 clinics per week) across our patch."

“Unfortunately, there is a shortage of locums and permanent doctors wishing to work in the South West."

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“We have reviewed clinical resources available to the practice and have had to make this short term change to enable us to best meet the needs of the whole practice population. Until we manage to secure additional help we are left with no choice but to close Millbrook on a Wednesday afternoon.

“We understand that this will be disappointing, but we hope you will understand that having lost 12 clinics a week of doctor time we need to work out how best to provide a safe service across our whole patch.”

The surgery reopened on Tuesday.