THE Gargrave surgery of Skipton's Fisher Medical Centre - closed 'temporarily' three years ago - is due to re-open in April following pressure by the parish council.

Bill Graham, of the Modality Partnership, of which Fisher Medical is part, told a meeting of Gargrave Parish Council that last year's planned reopening had been put to one side, but was now very much on.

And he reassured councillors and members of the public that the surgery in Higherlands Close would re-open after Easter, initially for two mornings per week.

He also promised to relay back concerns about appointments being taken up by people from outside Gargrave instead of those residents who were unable to drive and found it difficult to get to Skipton.

Mr Graham further explained the difficulties facing GP practices and the problems of recruiting doctors, and talked about a new system due to be brought in which it was hoped would result in more patients more efficiently getting the care they wanted and needed.

"We have a limited number of GPs, we are trying to recruit more, as are most GP surgeries across the country, it is quite a competitive market," he said.

Mr Graham acknowledged that the surgery, which closed temporarily in March 2020 at the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, had been due to re-open last year, but there had been a problem with the NHS IT system.

And pressed to say whether it would actually happen this time, he said it would, adding that work had been taking place inside over the last few days.

"There has been a lot of issues with the NHS IT. It had been due to open at the back end of last year, but the NHS put the wrong terminals in, which was frustrating, but we have got the right terminals in now and are just waiting for a bit more NHS IT to finish, there are also some internal works, but hopefully we will re-open ager Easter, that is the plan," he said.

He said the Modality Partnership had also been working with a charity to develop a garden area at the surgery for patients, and he said there were no grounds in a 'rumour' that Modality was interested in taking over the Dyneley House surgery in Skipton saying that was not what it did.

The meeting heard from members of the public of their experiences of being in phone queues of more than 30 people waiting to speak to the Skipton surgery and of having more than one phone at a time going in an attempt to get a call answered.

Mr Graham responded that 95 per cent of people received a 'call back' if they took the call-back option and that generally people were satisfied with phone consultations.

Cllr Stephen Coetzer, parish council chair, said there had been a lot of frustration in the village about the surgery remaining closed and he hoped it would indeed reopen after Easter.