Eagle-eyed residents will have noticed a recent change of use application for the Mitchley Avenue Surgery to be converted to residential use as a single self-contained dwelling.
This has caused some concern amongst residents and between is we have sought clarity on what is happening.
Cllr Hopley has confirmed with the local NHS Trust that they are aware of the potential closure and confirmed that there is a process around GP practice closures and openings.
Cllr Hale has said that she will look at the Planning application itself and submit comments if necessary.
I have made contact with the surgery itself and received a response from Dr Alex Trompetas, who is the Senior Partner at the Selsdon Road Medical Practice, which most residents will know is across the road from Selsdon Sainsburys.
Dr Woolf will be retiring in 2025 after many years of service. As owner of the premises, this application for change of use is now being explored. The majority of Sanderstead's residents have been registered at the Mitchley Avenue Surgery at some time and have benefitted from Dr Woolf's professionalism and kindness, sometimes over decades, so whilst we will all wish Dr Woolf well, he will be sorely missed by many of us.
It is not clear at this time whether the premises will continue to operate as a medical surgery and this has caused some concern about whether neighbouring practices would have capacity to take on new patients. Patients who were registered at Mitchley Avenue Surgery in Spring 2022 will have received a letter that confirmed that from 1 April 2022, Mitchley Avenue Surgery became a branch site to Selsdon Park Medical Practice with the two practices patient lists becoming one on 25 May 2022. All subsequent patients have registered directly as patients of Selsdon Road Medical Practice.
Dr Trompetas has reiterated that all of the Mitchley Avenue patients are registered with Selsdon Park Medical practice and can continue accessing all the services of Selsdon Park without any need for any action on their behalf. Many of the patients have been attending Selsdon Park already for GP services as well as multiple other clinics like Diabetes, Physio, ENT, minor surgery, contraception etc. I'm sure quite a few of us went there for our COVID vaccinations.
Whilst the final outcome remains a little unclear, there will be sufficient capacity for Sanderstead patients, and we look forward to future news. In due course, we will also all want to thank Dr Woolf for the exemplary service he has provided to our local neighbourhood over many years.
