GP surgery to reopen with doctors' training hub

7 hours ago

Tom MacDougallNorth East and Cumbria

News image — Griffin Close Surgery in Frizington will reopen after four years

Josh McAllister MP Josh McAllister, the MP for Whitehaven and Workington, standing with Fellview Healthcare staff and representatives from Pears Cumbria School of Medicine at Griffin Close GP surgery. The building itself is a grey-brown pebbledash building with white door and window frames, surrounded by lawns of mown grass and stone slab pathways cutting through them. — Griffin Close Surgery in Frizington will reopen after four years

A GP surgery is to reopen after more than £300,000 of investment and a push to recruit more doctors.

Griffin Close Surgery in Frizington, Cumbria, has been closed since 2022 because of staffing pressures, with patients instead having to access services through other practices.

With £336,000 of government investment, it will be restored as a GP surgery and run by the North Cumbria Primary Care Alliance for Fellview, as well as being used as a GP training hub by Pears Cumbria School of Medicine.

It is hoped prospective students will build their careers and stay in the region, whilst the doctors providing training will still work as GPs and boost staffing numbers across local practices.

Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, said: "That means more GP capacity for patients in Frizington, Cleator Moor, Egremont and Whitehaven now, and a stronger pipeline of doctors choosing to train, work and hopefully stay in Cumbria for the long term."

North Cumbria Primary Care Alliance said it hoped the plans would ease pressures on communities across the wider area, which have "experienced significant GP workforce shortages for many years".

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