Our main site is at Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health, and we have a branch site in Uffculme. Before the COVID Pandemic, we also ran a limited service at our branch site in Willand, the ground floor of a converted hours, four mornings a week between the hours of 08:30 and 12:30 with a GP and two mornings a week in the same hours with a Health Care Assistant. Between them, the clinicians saw an average 60 patients per week but the building was unsuitable to deliver a full long-term, safe, and modern healthcare service so Willand patients still needed to attend the main site in Cullompton for many different appointments including urgent same-day care, nursing appointments, including smears and wound care, fitting of contraceptive devices, physiotherapy, mental health consultations, and vaccinations.

In March 2020, because of the pressures arising from the COVID-19 Pandemic, we temporarily closed Willand Surgery. This was due to workforce challenges, infection control concerns at the site, and national changes to the way GP practices were directed to provide services, including increased use of remote consultations.

During the temporary closure, we asked patients and our local partners in the community to help us understand the impact on them of the Willand branch surgery being closed in order to consider future provision. The engagement survey took place over an extended period in 2021/2022, partly delayed by the pandemic, and partly to give people further time to comment. The results can be accessed here: Patient Engagement Report