GP services in Coniston

From 1 August 2025, Drs Katharina Frey and Ahmed Abbas will hand back their contract to provide general medical services at Coniston Village Surgery. This is due to Dr Frey’s retirement.

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) is the organisation that plans and manages NHS health services in the region, including general practice. To that end, we are required to consider all the options available to us in determining the future of general medical services for people registered at the practice. This includes speaking to members of the public during an extensive public engagement exercise which ran throughout February and March.

We can now confirm that, having considered all the options available and taking into account the feedback and comments received from local people, the ICB intends to open a procurement exercise to find a new provider to manage the service in Coniston.

What does this mean for patients?

The surgery will continue to operate as it does now until 31 July 2025. From 1 August 2025, a caretaker will be appointed to run the service and this will continue to be from the current premises in Wraysdale House. This means the location of the service will remain the same, however there will be a change in personnel managing and providing services from the practice.

Details of who that caretaker organisation will be have not yet been confirmed, however there are interested parties prepared to step in and manage the service on a temporary basis until a permanent contract can be procured.

Procurement of a provider for general medical services is likely to take between six months to a year. Patients and the patient participation group (PPG) will be engaged with as part of this process. While the process is ongoing, patients will continue to be able to access services from the current premises in the same way they are currently used to. Once the procurement has concluded and a new provider has been appointed to manage the service, we will write to inform you of this and of what happens next.

Update – 26 June 2025

The ICB remains committed to finding a provider to provide general medical services for Coniston and the surrounding areas.

We are currently finalising negotiations with an organisation to act as caretaker to provide services following the retirement of Dr Frey and the departure of Dr Abbas, which will happen on 31 July 2025.

We are aware that discussions have taken place between the caretaker organisation and the staff currently employed at Coniston Village Surgery and that staff are individually considering whether they wish to continue to work at the practice.

We would like to thank patients of Coniston Village Surgery for their patience and understanding throughout this process. It is important to know that until the caretaker arrangement is finalised, the practice will be unable to facilitate the booking of appointments beyond 31 July. This is out of the control of the existing staff and we thank patients for continuing to treat staff at the practice with courtesy, respect and kindness at this time.

We will provide a further update shortly.