GP services look set to return to John Pounds Centre in Portsmouth for first time since pandemic hit

Long-running efforts to restore full medical services to the site in Queen Street, Portsea, have been hampered by difficulties in reaching an agreement with the practice being a subtenant of NHS Property Services, prompting discussions for a direct, 10-year lease with the council.

But Jo York, the managing director of Health and Care Portsmouth, said they were ‘committed’ to the project with a public consultation due to take place later this year.

This work has been slowed by the focus on North Harbour Medical Group in Cosham ahead of its closure and the need to transfer patients to new practices which has taken up resources.

John Pounds Medical Centre ‘temporarily’ closed just before the pandemic after it merged with Lake Road Practice and although some nursing services have returned, the lack of doctors has prompted concerns.

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Portsea Action Group, which has been campaigning about the area’s lack of GPs, has petitioned the city council urging the local authority and the NHS to step up their efforts to complete the reopening.

Ms York’s update report, published ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of the health scrutiny panel, said some progress has been over the last year but recently had stalled.

Time has been taken up dealing with the fallout of the closure of North Harbour Medical Group in Cosham, which is closing due to GP recruitment difficulties. This has meant that 9,000 patients have had to be allocated a new doctor.

‘We remain committed to identifying what service provision may be required at John Pounds Medical Centre for the Portsea population based on their needs but have been unable to progress this work since our last update [in January] due to the ongoing challenges with North Harbour Medical Group,’ her report says.

‘Our proposal is to establish a working group to help identify the challenges and needs of residents in accessing healthcare in Portsea.’

This will include the action group, Healthwatch Portsmouth, the council and the integrated care board to improve healthcare in the area and will see an ‘extensive’ consultation process completed before the end of the summer.