A CARDIGAN surgery’s announcement that it will remain open has been hailed as “excellent news” this week.

Ashleigh Surgery had been under threat of closure ever since it emerged that one of its three GPs was resigning and another was retiring. Dr Peter Counsell, who resigned from the Napier Street practice in January, left at the end of July, while Dr Simon Knight was due to retire in January.

The situation became critical after it was revealed that the surgery received no applications from new GPs in seven months.

And Hywel Dda University Health Board’s admission that they were being hampered by an acute shortage of rural GPs prompted widespread concern for the surgery’s 4,020 patients, around 150 of whom attended a public meeting at Cardigan Guildhall in July.

But on Wednesday, the surgery announced on its Facebook page that a resignation had been withdrawn.

The Cambrian News understands that Dr Knight will not now be retiring in January following the securing of a long-term locum for the “foreseeable future”.

“This will ensure we have a period of stability to allow us to continue recruiting and to attract incoming practitioners,” the board said in a statement."

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