Changes at Eltham Palace GP Surgery

NHS South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB) is considering options for the future of Eltham Palace Surgery.

We need the views of patients and their carers to help us make an informed decision. If you are registered with the GP practice or a carer of someone who is, please fill in our survey below.

The survey will close on Monday 15 June 2026 at 5pm.

Why are changes needed?

On 19 March 2026, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) cancelled the Eltham Palace Surgery GP partners’ legal authority to run Eltham Palace Surgery.

Since then, Eltham Medical Practice has been providing services to patients via a temporary ‘caretaking’ arrangement.

Eltham Palace Surgery remains open and appointments, prescriptions and other services continue to be available to registered patients in the normal way.

NHS South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB) which plans health and care services in Greenwich and South East London, now needs to identify longer term options.

As part of this, we wish to understand and consider patient views.

What changes are being considered?

There are two options being considered:

1. Appointing a new organisation to provide general practice services at Eltham Palace Surgery
2. Asking patients to re-register with another local practice

1. Appointing a new organisation

GP practices are independent organisations that hold a contract with the NHS to provide GP services for patients.

NHS South East London ICB is required to run an open and transparent process when appointing a new provider of general practice services, taking account of what is viable and what is in patients’ best interests.

This process can take around 9–12 months.

The number of patients registered with a GP practice is an important consideration when making a decision about the future.

Practices with fewer than 12,000 registered patients are often less likely to attract interest from potential providers of GP services.

The current size of the Eltham Palace Surgery registered patient list is approximately 5,000 patients.

Continuing with the current short-term arrangements beyond the agreed period is unlikely to be a long-term solution because patients need a stable service to support safe, consistent care and continuity of care.

2. Asking patients to re-register with other general practices

As well as exploring whether a new GP provider can be appointed, NHS South East London ICB is also considering asking patients to re-register with another local GP practice before the current arrangements end.

This would help to make sure patients can continue to access safe and reliable GP care.

Our priority is to make sure all patients can continue to access safe and reliable GP care.

To help inform any decision, we will work with local GP practices to understand whether they have enough capacity to register and provide care to new patients if this option is needed.

If a decision is made to move patients to other local GP practices, you will be able to choose a local GP practice to re-register with.

If we decide on this option, we will write to you again with details about the closure of Eltham Palace Surgery, with details of other local practices which are registering new patients.

If you are still registered with Eltham Palace Surgery at the time of closure, you will be allocated to a local practice so you can continue to receive GP services. This will not affect your right to choose to register with a different local practice if you prefer.

How to share your views

We understand you may have questions or concerns about possible changes to your GP practice, and we would like to hear your views.

Our FAQs on this page will help to answer some questions. If you have any other questions you can email communications@selondonics.nhs.uk.

You can give your views by taking our survey at the bottom of this page. A printed copy of the survey is also available in Eltham Palace Surgery.

We have also arranged two meetings to listen to your feedback and answer questions:

• An in-person meeting on Thursday 28 May from 1.30pm to 2.30pm, held at St Mary’s Centre, 180 Eltham High Street, Eltham, London SE9 1BJ. Parking is available nearby in the Sainsbury’s car park, and the venue has disabled access at the back of the building.
• An online meeting via MS Teams on Tuesday 2 June at 7pm to 8pm

If you would like to join either of the above meetings, please register via Eventbrite https://tinyurl.com/elthampalacesurgery or email communications@selondonics.nhs.uk.

What happens next?

We will use patient feedback to inform recommendations and ensure the decision regarding the future of the practice is made in a fair and transparent way.

The decision will be made at the Healthier Greenwich Partnership meeting in July 2026. We will publish details of this meeting and papers on NHS South East London ICB’s website at: https://www.selondonics.org/in-your-area/greenwich/.

We will write to patients after that decision to inform them about the outcome and to outline next steps. Please be assured that for now, your registration as a patient with the practice remains unchanged.