23 November 2023
The Health Board is pleased to support the merger of Llanilar Health Centre and Ystwyth Medical Group to ensure the sustainability of GP services in Aberystwyth and Llanilar. The practice team is sharing the following information with us as the commissioning body and has asked that we share this information with members of our community.
Merger of Llanilar Health Centre and Ystwyth Medical Group – communication to registered patients
As you may be aware earlier this year Dr Deanna Evans became a single-handed GP at Llanilar Health Centre. This means that Dr Evans is solely responsible for the running of the practice services and the business, and this is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
In order to ensure that general medical services can be provided to patients at Llanilar Health Centre, Dr Evans has opened discussions with the GP Partners at Ystwyth Medical Group in Aberystwyth. After many months of discussion both Practices have agreed that the best way forward is for us to merge to form a new single Practice, so that we will continue to provide care to patients at Llanilar Health Centre and Ystwyth Medical Group. This merger is scheduled to happen from 1st April 2024 and the practices are busy planning for this.
Dr Evans will be joining Dr Davies, Dr Grahl and Dr Ellaban in partnership and the GPs will be bringing together the Practice staff that currently work in both Practices. We anticipate that by working together to consolidate services we can continue to attract high quality clinicians to our team.
What does this mean for me?
If you are currently registered with either Llanilar Health Centre or Ystwyth Medical Group, then you will continue to be a patient at the newly formed partnership. You do not need to do anything.
Where will I be able to access care?
As a patient of the merged practice, you will be able to access services at Llanilar Health Centre or Ystwyth Medical Group, depending on the availability of appointments. So you can continue to use the Surgery that is local to you, or the other if that’s more convenient if you travel for work for example.
What will the opening times be?
Ystwyth Medical Group will continue to be open 8am – 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Llanilar Health Centre will remain open with revised opening hours and will have clinicians on-site everyday Monday to Friday. The Dispensary will remain in Llanilar and will be open daily. We will be carrying out an exercise over the coming weeks to look at the peak times when the Dispensary is used to make sure this important service remains available for our patients.
If I’m an Ystwyth Medical Group patient, can I collect my medication from the Dispensary in Llanilar?
Dispensary services are available for patients who live more than one mile as-the-crow-flies from a Community Pharmacy and are registered with a Dispensing GP Practice.
Where can I get more information?
The planning for the practice merger in the spring is underway and we will share more detail on our websites as plans progress, and through the surgeries.
The Practices are jointly organising a public engagement drop-in event in the coming weeks in Llanilar and this will be an opportunity for patients registered at either Practice to meet members of the new combined Practice team, along with the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about how services will be provided by the newly merged Practice.
All patients and local stakeholders are welcome to call in to the event, and more details will be made available when the date has been confirmed.
Our patients are incredibly important to us, and we hope that you will continue to offer the same level of support to us as you have done historically as we move forward in our new partnership.
In the meantime, ahead of the merger in the spring, please continue to use services as normal in the practice you are registered at.
Thank you
Dr Gail Davies, Dr Steffi Grahl, Dr Ahmed Ellaban - Ystwyth Medical Group
Dr Deanna Evans - Llanilar Health Centre.
If you have any questions regarding this change, that are not outlined above, please ask a member of the surgery staff when you next visit either Llanilar or Ystwyth surgeries, or call 01970 613500 and select option 5.