Don’t ignore the patients

Last updated 11:46, Tuesday, 05 August 2008

Find a building and expect people to shape their needs around it. This tactic of putting cart before horse seems to be favoured by the six doctors’ practices planning to come together as Carlisle Medical Group.

The practices have a site in mind, at Hilltop Heights off London Road, and so far no amount of opposition has persuaded them to look elsewhere.

That opposition, consisting of patients and politicians, questions the wisdom of putting a medical centre at the top of a steep hill well away from the city centre.

Many patients, a large number of them elderly, would be faced with a difficult journey involving more than one bus or a taxi.

The search for an alternative site has led some to suggest Denton Holme: relatively central and poorly served for medical services.

About 35,000 patients need to be convinced that a “super surgery”, wherever it may be, will be superior to what they have now and worth the inconvenience of extra travel.

If that battle is won the doctors’ practices have a duty to find a site convenient for patients and Denton Holme should be given serious consideration.

The largely futile fight to save post offices showed that even the most vociferous and well-argued opposition can be ignored. Patient power should be listened to and acted upon.