Health chiefs have bowed to public pressure and decided not to close a doctor s surgery in Hackney Wick..

Health chiefs have bowed to public pressure and decided not to close a doctor's surgery in Hackney Wick.

The City and Hackney Primary Care Trust have agreed not to move the Trowbridge Surgery in Merriam Avenue to a new building on the old Hackney Hospital site in Homerton High Street.

The Gazette reported last week how hundreds of patients did not understand why the modern surgery, built just two years ago, should be moved to a new site two miles down the road.

The trust's chief executive, Laura Sharpe, visited the Trowbridge estate surgery on Tuesday morning to inform staff they were staying put.

"Clearly, there was a lot of public opinion that we want to listen to and I think on balance it's the right thing to do," she said. "People value the surgery and it's important for us to hear these people.

Mrs Sharpe said that the trust had reached the decision after considering the distance to the new site, as well as the demands for health care from the growing population in Hackney Wick.

The trust outlined plans to move crumbling buildings into four new super surgeries in the four corners of the borough. The plan to shift Trowbridge Surgery caused the most anger among the people who took part. More than 200 patients wrote to the trust to say the surgery was a much-valued community resource.

However, less modern surgeries may be moved when the trust publishes its revised proposals at the end of the month.

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