OUTRAGED residents, GPs and councillors have rallied together to urge the NHS to keep a surgery in their village.
Sherston Parish Council was shocked to receive a document from Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board which proposed closing Tolsey Surgery and moving all its services and patients to Malmesbury Primary Care Centre.
The parish was waiting for plans for a new more functional medical centre in Sherston to replace the old one to be approved but were horrified to find out that this project might be scrapped.
Fears of having no local dispensary motivated the council to set up an SOS - Save Our Surgery campaign with a petition.
More than 250 disgruntled residents crammed into Sherston Village Hall last Thursday, October 5 to discuss the issue.
The meeting was chaired by Wiltshire councillor for the Sherston division Martin Smith, MP James Gray, Malmesbury mayor Gavin Grant and Tolsey Surgery GP Simon Watkin.
Concerns were raised about long journey times, parking at the Malmesbury centre, the lack of public transport and the loss of a more personal service from local GPs if plans for a new centre in Sherston were abandoned.
Cllr Smith said: "At the meeting we decided to continue our campaign as we need a definite statement of support from the integrated care board for a new GP facility in Sherston.
"We have started an area wide petition to show the strength of feeling about this issue in the community.
"I met with the director of primary care at the care board and it was clear that a merger of Tolsey Surgery with Malmesbury was not off the table.
"He has agreed to consult with all the GPs in the North Wiltshire Area about it and will submit a report to the next integrated care board meeting in November."
Malmesbury Town Council unanimously voted to back proposals for a new GP surgery in Sherston and to oppose any attempt to move patients to Malmesbury last Tuesday, October 10.
Cllr Grant wrote a letter to the care board which said that moving Tolsey patients to Malmesbury would be 'a recipe for disaster' and put unnecessary pressure on medical staff in Malmesbury.
Mr Gray also wrote a letter urging his constituents to support the SOS campaign which stated: "Sherston needs and deserves a surgery and the parish council has a cost-free plan to preserve it and rebuild it.
"Destroying it would be an act of the worst kind of bureaucratic vandalism and I pledge to do whatever I can to prevent it."
A spokesperson for the integrated care board said: "In recent years, practices up and down the country, have taken part in a national exercise to assess how to get the most out of existing primary care buildings.
"The findings of this work are currently in a draft format and are being used as a starting point for further discussions about ways in which local primary care can become better integrated with other community-based services.
"As such, proposals linked to specific practices will require further scrutiny before any firm decision can be made.
"All draft recommendations will take into account local factors, such as transport options and overall accessibility."
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