Creating stronger primary care services in the South Somerset West Primary Care Network
UPDATE Thursday 19th November
Following a busy engagement period with patients and local stakeholders, we are pleased to confirm that earlier this month, the NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board confirmed its approval of the proposal to merge the surgeries and therefore the practices are now working towards combining their contracts in mid January 2026.
This change will enable our teams to access and update one shared patient medical record system to more efficiently care for our population and will bring together all four practices sites (across seven sites) into one primary care contract.
For more information, you can download our latest letter to patients below, as well as our updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document. To access our initial letter informing patients of the proposal, you can click on the heading under "Previous Communication" button below.
Previous Communication
As you may already know, Buttercross & Ilchester Surgery, Crewkerne Health Centre: Middle Path & West One, Hamdon Medical Centre and Martock & South Petherton Surgery make up the South Somerset West Primary Care Network. All four practices are also part of the Symphony Healthcare Services (Symphony) group – a large-scale primary care and NHS provider in Somerset, and subsidiary of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.
Since joining Symphony, the practice teams have been supported to implement new systems and processes to make essential improvements. As a result, all practices have maintained a ‘Good’ rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Over the last year, our practice teams have been working increasingly closer, to provide greater support and resilience to the workforce across the four sites and to develop new innovative ways of working to help improve patient experience.
Further information regarding this proposal can be found below: