HEALTH bosses have been accused of incompetence over an ‘unhelpful’ letter to patients of a medical centre which has now closed.

Before Witney’s Deer Park Medical Centre shut last month, a letter was sent to patients offering them nine alternative surgeries with which they could re-register.

But the letter provided no details on the catchment areas of the practices, leading to confusion from many people living in Deer Park as to which surgery they can now go to.

When contacted by the Oxford Mail, five of the surgeries said the estate was not in their catchment areas while one said people could register but doctors could not do home visits.

Despite closing several weeks ago, hundreds remain signed up to Deer Park Centre.

Vice chairman of the patient participation group at the centre Jim King said: “People have come to our team and told us they’ve been having trouble re-registering with other practices because of that list that was sent out by Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

“It was a list of surgeries in the area that paid no attention to the catchment areas of those particular surgeries.

“That letter was not helpful at all to patients. I don’t think they did their research. The whole thing has just been incompetence.”

A dispersal letter was sent to Deer Park patients in early February, informing them of the impending closure and providing information on registering with alternative surgeries.

The letter read: “There are nine other GP practices which cover the areas where Deer Park patients live, including three practices in Witney and three covering the Carterton, Burford and Minster Lovell area.

“All the local practices are aware that patients from Deer Park Medical Centre will be looking to register with a new GP practice and they are ready to welcome you.”

The surgeries offered by the CCG were Bampton Surgery, Eynsham Medical Centre, Broadshires Health Centre (Carterton), The Nuffield Practice (Witney), Burford Surgery, Windrush Health Centre (Witney), Charlbury Medical Centre, Woodstock Surgery and Cogges Surgery (Witney).

The Gazette called all nine of the surgeries offered by the CCG, claiming to be a resident of the Deer Park estate, seeking a new practice.

The Nuffield Practice, the Windrush Health Centre, Cogges Surgery and Charlbury Medical Centre said they could accept a new patient, while all the others said a patient living in Edington Road would not fall within the correct boundary. Charlbury Medical Centre said a patient could register but may receive reduced services.

The latest figures indicated there were about 800 former Deer Park patients who have not re-registered.

CCG spokeswoman Sue Boyce said: "The CCG has made it clear in meetings with the Deer Park Patient Participation Group that GP practices in and around Witney have catchment areas.

"The dispersal letter sent to patients at the end of February advised that the nine alternative practices were ready to welcome people who lived within their boundaries, two advertisements in the local Witney newspaper offered similar information and how to go about finding a new practice according to the patient’s address.

“The practice boundaries are published on the CCG website, the CCG’s patient services team has the information and can discuss with patients if they need help registering, Healthwatch is aware, the local MP has included the message regarding boundaries on his website update about Deer Park.

"Around 90 per cent of Deer Park patients were eligible to register with the practices in the town, all of which had open lists."

Responding to the CCG's points on information available online - Mr King said many of the patients, particularly elderly patients, were not users of computers.

In September last year, the CCG announced Deer Park Medical Centre, which served more than 4,000 patients at the time, would close after no-one could be found to run it after Virgin's contract expired.