TWO GP surgeries in York with a total of 48,000 patients have announced plans to merge - in a move they say will improve services.

The plan to bring together Haxby Group and Gale Farm was announced yesterday.

Haxby Group, which runs GPs surgeries in Haxby, Huntington, New Earswick and Stockton-on-the-Forest and four GP surgeries in Hull, wants to merge with Gale Farm, which has surgeries in Acomb and Upper Poppleton. All of the surgeries will remain open.

It is the latest merger of GP surgeries in York - which have so far included the merger of York Medical Group and Minster Health and Gillygate Surgery and Jorvik Medical Practice as surgeries across the country have merged to save money and improve buying power.

Dr Daniel Kimberling, partner at Gale Farm Surgery and The Old Forge Surgery, said: “This is a very exciting time for all the patients and staff. We welcome this proposed partnership with Haxby Group and the chance to work more closely with their excellent team, combining the expertise of the talented doctors and staff at both practices so we can achieve better patient care in the future.

“The views of our patients are very important to us and we very much want to hear what they think before any final decision is made.

“We want to reassure our patients that we will continue to provide continuity of care and high clinical standards.”

Patients and staff at Gale Farm’s two surgeries are being asked to give their views on the proposed changes as part of a three month consultation.

A patient open morning is to be held on Saturday, October 11 between 9am and 11am at Gale Farm Surgery in Acomb when people can come down and meet some of the staff and managers of both practices.

Haxby Group has said the move will create a larger, stable team of doctors and improve and extend the kind of services it offers - for example, by merging with Haxby Group, Gale Farm could provide access to vasectomy procedures at its Acomb surgery. Both have strong records in training staff.

Once feedback has been received and analysed, a final decision will be made at the end of this year.