A GP surgery in Doncaster suffered thousands of pounds of damage after a car was driven straight into its building, destrying the waiting room.
It will take ‘several months’ for the Village Practice in Armthorpe to be fully operational again after the incident in the early hours of Sunday last week, which is expected to have caused at least £25,000 worth of damage to the building.
Practice manager Susan Simpson told Pulse that the practice had to partially close and that there is a worry vaccine campaigns could be delayed.
The practice underwent a merger last year and it is currently run by ASA medical group, with two other practices in the area, which were able to accommodate patients and staff.
Ms Simpson said: ‘We were called out at half past three in the morning and told that there was a problem with the burglar alarm.
‘And later we were told that the car had driven straight into the building. It has taken down the full exterior wall and gone straight into the reception area.
‘The whole reception area is just demolished. We’ve had to redeploy staff out to other surgeries, we are quite fortunate to have other sites we can work from.
‘We still had skeleton staff within that building just to see vulnerable patients who can’t obviously travel and pre-booked face to face appointments.
‘But for everything else we had to close the whole surgery down. We are just really grateful that patients have been accommodated.’
She said that the surgery is still waiting for insurance quotes, adding: ‘We are not talking about a small amount of damage, we are talking about £25,000 to £30,000 worth of damage, I would think.
‘We hope to be up and running as soon as physically possible but the thing that I’m concerned about is obviously winter coverage if we don’t get up and running, it’s going to be hard to manage.
‘Thank you to the local ICB, LMC, practice managers and PCD for their offers of support.’
In a statement on Sunday, ASA Medical Group said: ‘An incident occurred in the early hours of this morning causing serious damage to the Armthorpe Site.
‘This is a police incident and they are following up with their investigation, in the meantime we will be redirecting patients and staff accordingly.
‘We are doing all we can to ensure we are business as usual as soon as possible we appreciate your patience at this time.’
A spokesperson for South Yorkshire police told Pulse: ‘Police were called at 3.41am on Sunday (3 September) following reports of a collision on Mere Lane.
‘On arrival, it was discovered that a silver Volkswagen Tiguan had collided with a building. No one was injured during the incident. Enquiries are ongoing.’
Earlier this year, a GP practice caring for 13,000 patients in Leicester had to remain closed for at least three months after its roof collapsed due to ‘catastrophic’ flooding.
Last month, a GP practice in Sheffield was ‘seriously vandalised’ with 13 windows and two doors smashed in.
if this is the length a disgruntled patient will go, then the Practice has problem———–not the patient——-the Practice