A pensioner who had been with the same GP practice since he was born has had to move to a different one in order to free up places on the register for an ever-expanding population.

John Carpenter has been removed from The Chestnuts Surgery’s books because he lives “outside of the boundary” from the practice in Sittingbourne’s East Street.

However, the 79-year-old is sceptical of the timing because it was after he had “raised concerns” about the practice and his experiences.

Mr Carpenter, of Kenilworth Court, sent an email to the surgery in November raising minor concerns including having to wait one hour 15 minutes to see the doctor for a booked appointment and not being able to book a slot on the patient access portal, just a repeat prescription.

But, on the same day, he had an email response from the practice to say his online services account had “been locked”. It was followed by another email, which firstly thanked Mr Carpenter for raising his concerns and said they would be looked into, but then went onto say he was “out of the surgery boundary” and was “closer to two other surgeries”.

Therefore, the email continued, the administration team had been asked to “start the process of deducting” Mr Carpenter from the surgery so he could find a new one closer to home.

“This will also address the concerns you are experiencing at The Chestnuts Surgery with the booking of appointments, recent experiences and the contact with GPs,” the email read.

Mr Carpenter’s wife Jean, 78, subsequently had her patient access withdrawn.

The grandfather added: “I feel like they only withdrew our access because of my complaints. It wouldn’t have even been considered if I had not have raised the concerns.

“I’m just frustrated I got such a reaction after 79 years.

“I understand the problems they’re under and the reason given. They are trying to reduce numbers because of new properties being built within their boundary, but kick out the old ones? How many is this? Whatever it is, it will not drastically reduce the doctor/patient ratio. We need more GPs.”

Shaun Potter, The Chestnuts Surgery’s practice manager, said the review had been taking place for the past six months and was, in no way, related to Mr Carpenter’s comments. “We constantly review our boundary areas,” he added.

'To ensure we can provide a safe service and meet the demands of patients, we’ve had to review our boundary and focus on patients within the catchment area including new housing developments...'

Clarifying the surgery’s boundary rules, Mr Potter said: “The Chestnuts Surgery is central to Sittingbourne town centre and, therefore, we have a number of new housing developments on our doorstep that bring extra patients to the surgery. To ensure we can provide a safe service and meet the demands of patients, we’ve had to review our boundary and focus on patients within the catchment area including new housing developments.

“Although the removal of patients is a last resort, and something we try to avoid, we cannot continue to look after patients outside of our boundary and accept new patients who are living within it as we do not have the capacity.

“Mr Carpenter and his wife were historic patients from a branch surgery that used to be in Milton High Street. The surgery closed down many years ago and he was migrated to The Chestnuts Surgery but, with recent reviews, he has fallen outside of the catchment area.”

The surgery would not confirm how many patients had been removed from the practice, for living outside of the boundary, since the review began six months ago.

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