A health boss has denied new funding rules will force the closure of GPs surgeries, but admitted they will bring pain for some practices.

Last week Adam Wickings, managing director of NHS Sutton and Merton, was labelled a "bureaucrat gone mad" by Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond for after a Wimbledon Park GPs surgery said it could close.

Vineyard Hill surgery, in Vineyard Hill Road, said it would be under threat if NHS Sutton and Merton introduces planned changes to the system in which GPs are funded.

But, at a meeting of Merton Council's health and scrutiny committee on Thursday night, Mr Wickings defended his review into GP funding which launched two years ago.

He said it would enhance access to health services and would not lead to closures.

But he admitted the results would leave some practices worse off, contradicting his trust's claim last week that it would "ensure no practice is disadvantaged during this process".

He said: "Some practices will lose some money and some will gain some money, but no practice is under threat of closure."

He said the new regime would focus on agreed clinical priorities and address the fact that some surgeries were getting more money than others - but the outcome would not be "destabilising" for any practice.

Staff at Vineyard Hill said the new system would cost the surgery £200,000, or 43 per cent of its income, each year.

Staff and patients have also accused the trust of poor communication about the changes.

At the meeting, Oonagh Moulton, a Wimbledon Park councillor Oonagh Moulton and a patient at the surgery, said closure would cause "untold suffering" for those currently using it.

She told Mr Wickings: "I'm shocked that you're implementing fundamental changes with no consultation."

Mr Wickings said because negotiations with practices in the two boroughs were still ongoing, the exact details of how much each would receive - and the precise formula used to work out the amount - could not be released.

But, he added, the overall pot of money being distributed was not being cut.

The surgery, which has about 5,500 patients on its books, said the changes would mean it was only feasible to run 70 of the almost 300 appointments a week that currently take place.

At a public meeting on Monday, February 20, Dr Jill Provost, one of two GPs at the practice, said: "These losses are unsustainable...it's difficult to see how the practice could survive."

Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond told Monday night's meeting was likely to have a negative impact for other GPs in Wimbledon, and said: "This is about a local bureaucracy and a local bureaucrat gone mad."

The PCT is changing the formula used to calculate the per patient funding for every surgery in the boroughs of Merton and Sutton.

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