A decision on whether to close a Penge medical centre, forcing more than 5,000 patients to register elsewhere, will be made on Thursday.

The body responsible for the decision – Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) primary care commissioning committee – will weigh up the potential closure of the Trinity Medical Centre on Croyden Road.

The news has been met with opposition from at least one community group. 

A statement released by Community Action Penge, who oppose the closure of the centre, state the facility serves a mixed demographic with a high level of deprivation compared with the Bromley average.

The group, which was originally formed by staff at Trinity Medical Centre, also state: “It is unprecedented to close down a GP surgery that is performing well, fully staffed, in an area of high need, and without any public consultation”.

The community group have also expressed concern over a lack of public consultation on the proposal, adding that the proposal hasn’t been brought before any of Bromley council’s health committees.

Wider community opposition to the proposal is also stirring, with an online petition opposing the move and titled “Stop the closure of Trinity Medical Centre Penge” circulating on website change.org.

Labour Parliamentary candidate for Lewisham West and Penge, Ellie Reeves, has also publicly stated her resistance to the move.

In their reasoning, the CCG states that overall, the number of registered patients to the centre has decreased since July 2016 – dropping by 56 to a total of 5,262 as of October 2019. 

The CCG is confident those patients will be able to be accommodated by five other practices within 1.2 miles of the medical centre.

They expect that shutting the centre down is expected to result in savings of £180,000 per annum, although this is a figure that Community Action Penge dispute.

The CCG also states that a predicted population increase of 10 per cent over the next ten years is “likely to place further pressure on local practices, so the option of dispersal of patients currently registered at the Trinity Medical centre is not the only pressure or opportunity for practices to grow their list”.

The potential closure comes after the long-time GPs who ran the practice for 24 years retired last year, according to the CCG’s report.

Two extensions to the care-taking lease were subsequently signed while the CCG explored a long-term home for the centre.

However, the CCG stated that no available premises were available within the area before the current lease expires in March 2020,

The body will meet at Global House, 10 Station Approach, Bromley, from 1.30pm on November 28.