Sirs
We have seen your article Future of Marlborough’s soon-to-be-redundant police station is still shrouded in mystery, and feel we have to write to ask that you correct one statement in the article, namely: “…when the Practice needed more space and made the NHS dental service leave the Surgery.”
The facts are that the NHS dental service run by the Kennet and Avon Medical Practice (KAMP) came to the end of its five year fixed term contract with NHS England on 31st December 2018. NHS England would not roll the contract over or renew it without going through a formal tender process.
They also made it clear to KAMP that any replacement contract would not start from 1 January 2019, but rather at some time in the future.
KAMP were therefore faced with a situation where we would have had to continue to employ staff and dentists, for an indefinite period of time, with no NHS income due to there being no contract in place, and no guarantee that we would in any case win the tender process.
In these circumstances we had no choice in the matter, and whilst now having some additional space in which to expand could be seen as a silver lining, it was certainly not the reason why the dental practice closed.
Mike Farmer
Business Manager
Kennet and Avon Medical Partnership
Editors’ note: we apologise for giving an erroneous implication over the ending of the NHS Dental Service at the Surgery. However, it still serves to emphasise that the GPs needed more space at the George Lane Surgery.