A CAMPAIGNER lobbying to save a popular GP practice in Bradford has said patients are still in the dark over the future of the surgery following a meeting on Tuesday.

Bradford City CCG held an evaluation panel meeting to consider applications from surgeries to take on some 7,000 patients from three surgeries in Manningham.

The temporary contracts for Manningham Medical Practice, and the Picton@Sai surgery at Westbourne Green Community Health Centre and Picton@Whetley Medical Centre come to an end in March 2018, meaning 7,000 patients will need to find a new GP.

Patients will be helped to find a new doctor in Manningham through a re-allocation process.

The other GP surgeries at Westbourne Green - Oak Lane Surgery, Picton Medical Centre, and Lister's Surgery - and at Whetley Medical Centre - The Family Practice and The City Medical Practice - are not affected.

A spokesman for Bradford City CCG said: “A recommendation from the evaluation panel will go to the CCG’s primary care commissioning committee which meets on Tuesday, November 14.”

Jidendra Kumar Gupta is a leading figure in the campaign to keep open Manningham Medical Practice - which his sister founded in the 1970s - and attended the meeting as a patient representative. He said: “What we want is a surgery which is prepared to accept all the patients to be given preference.

“We still want the full surgery to be given to an applicant who is prepared to take on the whole surgery. At the meeting we were given no indication yet that the surgery will stay open.

“We believe there is one applicant prepared to take on the whole patient list, so we want them to be considered.

“We do not want the patient list to be dispersed. If the list is dispersed then that obviously means the surgery will close and patients will be sent here, there and everywhere.

“People are still worried about this and we hope they will take our concerns into account.

“I am meeting with MP Naz Shah on Friday and will be asking her to put pressure on the CCG to keep the surgery open and give consideration to the applicant prepared to take on the full list.”