DISCUSSIONS are taking place about the two GP practices in Wells merging to become one practice.

Wells City Practice and Wells Health Centre believe a merger will help them to meet the present and future primary care needs of their patients.

Patients would still have access to their current named GP if the change goes ahead, but more services will be available to them.

Dr Jonathan Bench, Partner at Wells Health Centre, said: "By becoming one practice we will have the ability to offer our services in a new way that will improve the healthcare service to the people of Wells. We plan to redesign our urgent on-the-day service, and to have the opportunity for patients to be able to access longer appointments for those with complex problems."

The two practices were moved from separate sites in Wells to a purpose-built surgery at Priory Health Park accommodating them both in 2004.

They kept their separate identities and patient lists while delivering the same services from the same building, but a number of discussions have taken place over the past few years about whether the two practices should merge into one large practice.

Dr Josephine Newton, Partner at Wells City Practice, said: "We strongly believe that becoming a single practice and pooling our clinical and staffing resources will enable us to continue to offer a high quality professional and personal medical care to the growing population of Wells."

Becoming a single practice will mean being able to share the resources of both practices in a way that should allow them to expand their range of services to all their patients, such as the first contact physiotherapist, paramedics and nurse practitioners.

The practices will be discussing the proposed merger with their Patient Participation Groups and other key stakeholders before submitting their plan to Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group for approval.