CAMPAIGNERS have held a demonstration over fears health bosses would close a surgery.

The protest was held on Tuesday, outside the Jubilee Library. Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group members also had a meeting inside the library.

Last year, health bosses reduced the hours of Meadow Parade surgery in Rottingdean.

Its current opening hours are from 8.30am to 10.45am, and it has 10,157 registered patients.

Brighton and Hove CCG said doctors approached them last November to cut its hours. It confirmed there is no indication the surgery would close.

NHS leaders will have another meeting this spring to review the surgery hours.

Campaigners started a petition, ‘Save Meadow Parade Doctors Surgery’, which was signed by more than 1,140 people. Protesters demanded health bosses restore hours to two surgeries per day.

Sunny Choudhury, a member of the Labour Party’s NHS Forum, who was also at the protest, said: “There were 20 of us and one of the residents handed the petition to the CCG chairman.

“If the surgery closes this will impact on all services. It will especially affect vulnerable members of the community because they will need to go to Saltdean for the closest service.

“Travel time to Saltdean takes longer and this will affect patients with serious health problems.”

A spokesperson for the Brighton and Hove CCG said: “This decision formed part of the overall support package for the practice, which enabled it to receive large numbers of new patients in a short period of time, following the closure of the Ridgeway Practice on October 31 2017.

“Last year, the GPs at the now closed Ridgeway Practice gave the CCG six months’ notice that they were retiring from General Practice.

“They also indicated that they would not be making the premises available to the NHS after their retirement. As part of this process, patients received information on local practices.

“In light of the staffing situation at the Saltdean/Rottingdean practice and given that they are taking on approximately 600 new patients in a matter of weeks, the doctors at the practice asked the CCG for its agreement to reduce the number of hours that their Rottingdean branch was open.

“The doctors at Saltdean and Rottingdean Surgery feel they are able to offer a far superior service at their main surgery in Saltdean. They believe this increased workload can only be managed safely if there is more than one clinician available at any one time.”