The fight to save an under-threat doctor’s surgery has ramped up – with campaigners making a stand against the proposed closure.

Concerned residents gathered outside Frizington Surgery on Friday to show their opposition to plans to permanently close it.

Fell View Healthcare announced last month that it would be lodging an application with NHS England to close the practice – due to a shortage of GPs.

North Cumbria Primary Care Alliance (NCPC), was created in 2019 and took over the running of Frizington Surgery, as well as three practices in Whitehaven and others in Cleator Moor, Egremont, Seascale and Bootle.

The decision to close Frizington Surgery has caused uproar among residents, with many voicing their concerns at a heated public meeting held earlier this month.

A petition to save the surgery has now been signed by about 2,500 people.

Gwynneth Everett, clerk to Arlecdon and Frizington Parish Council, who attended the gathering on Friday, said: “It was just to highlight how important the surgery is to the community and we don’t want to lose it.

“There’s a lot of people involved. It goes as far as Ennerdale, Lamplugh, Arlecdon, Asby – not just Frizington.

“I’m sure a lot patients come from quite a wide area and if Frizington never opens again, all those patients impact on the other surgeries in Cleator Moor and Egremont. We just want a bit of fairness so the services are spread.

“We are losing another service. We’ve got very few shops. It’s just slowly chipping away.

“Another issue is there’s a lot of house building going on in the area. The population is not going to shrink.”

Norman Pearce, a councillor on Arlecdon and Frizington Parish Council, who also protested outside the surgery, said: “I’m disgusted at the fact they are trying to close it.

“You can’t get appointments. The last three times I’ve had to go to Egremont. I don’t drive. If I have to go to Egremont, I have to catch two buses. If I have to get a taxi, it’s £15 each way.

“What are pensioners supposed to do? If a pensioner is ill, the last thing they want to be doing is catching two buses to go to an appointment.

“We want to keep this surgery open. We will keep fighting. We are not going to let it go without a fight.”

At a public meeting held earlier this month, Mike Hunter, locality lead for Copeland at NCPC said that they had “consistently struggled” to recruit and retain GPs in their surgeries.

He said it had now reached a point where they could “no longer deliver safe and effective services” to all sites and this was why a decision had been made to close the branch surgery in Frizington.

To sign the petition to save Frizington Surgery, go to: www.change.org/p/save-frizington-surgery