HAGLEY surgery is to merge with four other practices as part of a move to meet NHS pressures.

The surgery has combined wtih Bewdley Medical Centre, Church Street Surgery in Kidderminster, Stourport Health Centre and York House Medical Centre in Stourport to form the Wyre Forest Health Partnership following discussions with 12 district practices.

Health chiefs have stressed the merger was not motivated by cost-saving and that all five individual centres will remain open and all staff have been offered roles in the new organisation.

One of the first of its kind for scale and complexity, the merger follows negotiations between GP partners from the five practices, NHS England and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and means 28 GP partners and 170-staff looking will be looking after 59,000 patients.

Dr Simon Gates, chairman of the new partnership, said: “Achieving the merger has taken a huge amount of time and energy by the GPs and their staff.

“We do believe the merger provides us with the best opportunity to continue providing high quality care to our patients at a time when the NHS needs to respond effectively to the well-publicised challenges of increasing demand including patients living longer often with multiple complex health conditions.”

Partnership bosses say patients will notice few differences in the short term as most changes will be administrative although plans are afoot to offer a more extensive range of services in the future.

They say they consulted with patient groups ahead of the merger and decided a patient representative from each surgery will sit on the board to help oversee the running of the organisation.

But Hagley Parish Council chairman Steve Collela, who is also a Bromsgrove district councillor for Hagley, said he's not aware of "any type of consultation being undertaken".

He added: "I'm interested in the degree and type of consultation that was undertaken.

"I'm also very interested in what this means for the residents and patients of the Hagley surgery and the long term effects given the expected increase in population from housing development as well as our own ageing population."

Patients, or carers of patients, are invited to attend an open event at Kidderminster Town Hall on Tuesday February 10, starting at 7pm, if they have any questions about the merger.

Cllr Colella said he would be attending the event but he fears "this will be too late for any concerns to be raised and responded to".

But he added: "It may be good news and a better service for patients, the fact is we don't know.

"Being able to see your own local GP who knows your health history is extremely important to people as well as being able to be seen quickly; I am concerned that waiting times and the depth of individual patient knowledge might be affected by this partnership."