Surgery damaged by patient's car

The driver was unhurt in the accident but the building was left unsafe

A GPs' surgery has been left structurally unsafe after being struck by a Mercedes as a patient was parking.

Pendyffryn surgery in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, has been left without power and some patients may have to be seen at other sites.

Engineers have used props to make the two-storey building safe while the repairs needed are assessed.

The surgery's 18,500 patients were being asked to contact the surgery as usual to make appointments.

Practice manager Beth Roberts said repairs were expected to take weeks and some GPs were without computer access in the meantime.

However, four of the 11 GPs at the practice were working from two branch surgeries, where they could access the computer system, she said.

One consulting room, a large work room, a corridor and the staff and disabled entrances were damaged when a car being driven by an elderly man attempting to park in a disabled parking bay struck the building, she said.

The damage to the surgery was assessed by engineers

Ms Roberts said: "The driver is a patient of ours and is unwell. He was parking.

"I think he was coming in. He was running into a disabled space and has gone forward over the pavement.

"Those who were working the building heard the bang. The doctor working in the room next door felt the bang.

"Obviously the driver was very shaken. He is okay. The car was not that badly damaged either.

Ms Roberts said the practice's emergency plan kicked in after the initial incident and doctors and staff had been "absolutely brilliant" in responding to the disruption.

She added: "It's every practice manager's nightmare. From the clinical governance point of view, it's very worrying.

"They [the GPs] don't have any past medical histories to refer to.

"Some doctors will know the patients well enough anyway. The patients do go to see the same doctor."

Denbighshire Local Health Board said: "Patients will be advised by the surgery where to attend for appointments, which are being provided at branch surgeries, and neighbouring practices."