GP Practices to Merge The partners of the White Horse and Fern Hill medical practices in Faringdon wish to announce that NHS England has approved their plans to merge the Practices in April 2015. All current patient services provided by both Practices will continue. It is hoped that by having one bigger Practice in Faringdon we will have the opportunity to attract a wider range of medical services to the town. As both Practices currently share the same Practice geographical area (i.e. Faringdon and the surrounding villages) we should not expect any problems with joining the two patient lists together. Patients to whom prescriptions are dispensed will be unaffected by the merger and will continue to be able to collect their prescriptions from the surgery, or have them delivered to their local collection point. The building layout will need to be altered to allow it to function as a single Practice rather than as two separate Practices, as we will only need one waiting room and one dispensary. We hope that patients will bear with us whilst the necessary work takes place and we will attempt to keep any disruption to a minimum. Staff have been kept informed throughout the merger decision process and are being consulted as part of a formal employment law process, to ensure that everyone is treated fairly. We will need to recruit at least one new GP to replace Dr Holdsworth’s sessions when she retires. We will strive to ensure that continuity of care can be maintained to the best extent possible. We hope that all patients from both practices will welcome this news and support the merger process. It is our aim to keep patients advised of any changes as they arise, via our websites (www.whmp.co.uk and www.fernhillpractice.co.uk) and that of the patient group (www.whitehorsepracticeppg.org.uk).