Application for Higham Closure
Important information regarding Highparks Medical Practice
Highparks Medical Practice operates from our four sites (Cliffe Woods, Cliffe, Higham and Wainscott) offering patients a wide range of services and, where possible, accessibility to the site of their choice for medical appointments.
Providing services across four locations is becoming financially unsustainable for the practice especially due to the running costs and maintenance of four buildings. Highparks needs to take steps to stabilise the practice’s financial position to be sustainable going forward and therefore needs to close one of its branch sites. An independent assessment of all our sites was carried out, which included a review of staff allocation, services offered, and overall finances. Based on the findings, we have determined that the site closure with the least impact on our patients will be Hermitage Road, Higham. After careful consideration and over 18 months of in-depth discussions, we are making a formal application to close this branch.
We understand this decision may raise questions or concerns, and we want to hear from you. We invite all of our patients to share how this proposed closure might affect you. To ensure we gather as much feedback as possible, we are providing several ways for you to get involved:
- Patient Surveys: Available on our website and in hard copy at all four practice sites.
- Drop-In Sessions: Attend a session at one of our sites to ask questions and share your thoughts. Dates for Drop in sessions are below.
- Patient Participation Group (PPG): We are working closely with our PPG members to ensure this information reaches as many people in the community as possible.
- We also have a page of frequently asked questions (FAQs) that you might find useful to read before you complete the survey or attend a drop in session.
All materials and surveys will be available online, as well as in hard copy at the reception areas of all our sites and in local community areas. For patients who are housebound, we will send this information by post.
This engagement period will last for ten weeks, starting on Monday 27 January 2025 and ending on Sunday 6 April 2025. After this we will submit our application for closure, and we will publish details of the outcome of the engagement and the next steps.
The practice emphasises that this is a difficult decision, and we want to assure patients that we are committed to providing safe, high-quality care throughout this transition.
We hope you can understand the reasons for this announcement and can appreciate why this difficult decision has been made.
For further information please view our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ fact sheet by clicking on the link below:
Thank you to the patients that participated throughout our engagement period.
Our engagement period has now ended. In the past 10 weeks we have received patient feedback about our proposal from many sources. We are now going to take time to read all of the comments and analyse the responses received from surveys.
