The doctor's surgery at Rippingale

The village surgery at Rippingale was earmarked for closure in the spring of 2013, much to the anger and dismay of local residents.

The decision was taken by NHS Lincolnshire despite almost four years of opposition from the action group set up by villagers to fight the closure yet their protestations fell on stony ground. The date for the surgery in Station Road to shut was given as March 31st and from then on patients will have to go to Billingborough almost five miles away to see a doctor.

The parish council mounted a spirited opposition against the closure, realising the hardship and inconvenience it would cause in the village, but to no avail and members vowed to continue the fight and even though the decision had been taken, they would not be giving up. “We intend to take this to a higher level”, said chairman Mike Hallas.

The council was particularly concerned about the poor newspaper coverage of their case and in a letter to the Stamford Mercury (January 11th) which had carried the story the previous week, Mr Hallas claimed that no mention was made of two patient consultations that were rejected and a refusal by the practice to allow access to documents relating to the closure while delays resulted in two other practices withdrawing their interest in taking over the surgery. “The decision appears to be more to do with administrative convenience than real patient care”, he wrote. “But the story is not over, not least because New Springwells and the Primary Care Trust have to deliver a patient transport system in ten weeks.”

In view of such scathing criticism, the welfare of villagers does not appear to have been given primary consideration, a sign of the changing relationship between doctor and patient over the years. Whereas it was once normal practice for doctors to visit the sick or to live within a convenient distance for the patient to visit them, the centralisation of services means that patients must now go to them wherever they decide to be and home visits are discouraged.

Rippingale has had its own doctor’s surgery for almost 180 years and in January 2013 it had more than 1,000 registered patients. It began around 1841 at Down Hall, also known as the Doctor’s House, and then in 1968 moved to the village hall until a permanent clinic was built on the site of the old Methodist chapel, the premises being enlarged in 1997 when it was known as the Glenside Practice. The last full time doctor died in 2009 when it became clear that closure was on the cards and the service transferred to the New Springwells Practice at Billingborough which covers a large rural area from Sleaford to Bourne, west to Grantham and east to the edge of the fens.

A recent survey at Rippingale revealed that more than 75% of villagers wanted to keep the surgery open and that there were real concerns about the availability of transport for patients to and from Billingborough. But NHS Lincolnshire said that the surgery building was no longer suitable and that the premises at Billingborough had been extended and improved during the past three years and could now accommodate the increased demands of the Rippingale branch but there would still be home visits to patients by doctors and practice nurses.

The surgery closure will mark the end of an era for the village which also has a connection with Bourne because it was here that Dr John Galletly began his career as a family doctor more than a hundred years ago. He was born and educated in Scotland but came south in the late 19th century to practice in England, having done locum work in Cumberland where he met his wife Caroline. He moved to Rippingale in 1890 and lived at Down Hall at a time when emergencies relied on a farmer's cart to transport an injured patient while his district was limited to those places that could be reached by a pony and trap or even a bicycle.

We know of the high regard in which Dr Galletly was held by villagers because an entry from the parish magazine of 1895 survives, telling us that he and his wife enjoyed singing and took part in concerts held in the schoolroom. “The doctor is about to move to Bourne”, said the entry. “During their stay amongst us, he and his wife have made many friends. The skill and attention he has shown in the treatment of all his patients have gained him universal esteem and confidence. In Mrs Galletly, we shall lose one who was ever ready to help in all church matters. She has been most helpful in the Sunday School and in the choir. We hear that Dr Galletly is not giving up the Rippingale practice but intends to put an assistant here so we shall not be losing him altogether, for which we are glad.”

Dr Galletly eventually moved to Bourne to take over Dr Robert Brown’s practice in North Road, a property that once stood near the present bus station, later building a new house at No 40 North Road where the surgery remained for the next 70 years and is today the home of the Galletly Practice. His son, also John, was sent to London to study medicine, returning to help his father and taking over completely when he died in 1937, thus continuing a lifelong love of Bourne and its people and becoming one of the town’s best known family doctors.

WRITTEN JANUARY 2013

See also Dr John Galletly

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