PATIENTS have been hailed for making their voices heard after a threatened GP surgery was saved from closure.

Cogges Surgery in Witney will remain open after the doctors in charge agreed a deal to continue providing services.

It ends five months of uncertainty for the practice's 7,700 patients, many of whom contributed to efforts to safeguard its future.

Residents formed the Save Cogges Surgery campaign, dozens attended public meetings and West Oxfordshire District Council set up a cross-party working group to try to find a solution.

Witney East district councillor, Rosa Bolger, who sat on the cross-party group and chaired the campaign, believes patients' hard work was vital.

She said: "What really shines through is when a community comes together, launches a grassroots campaign and is supported by local representatives, voices are heard, and change happens. Watch out Witney, our community is alive and kicking."

In July, the doctors running the practice, Dr Sandra Hallett and Dr Amisha Patel, announced they would hand back the contract for providing services after failing to recruit enough partners.

Save Cogges Surgery was formed within days, while patients shared their views at meetings organised by the Cogges & Newland Community Association and Witney Town Council in the following weeks.

Campaigners then lobbied Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) at its annual public meeting in September.

Meanwhile, OCCG wrote to practices across the county and identified its chosen provider through a mini-competition process.

But in October, the doctors at Cogges applied to continue running the surgery after recruiting a new partner, Dr Kirsty Shepherd.

They were asked to complete the same application process as other potential providers, which was accepted by OCCG last week.

Healthwatch Oxfordshire was unable to comment, but chairman Prof George Smith previously said asking Cogges to complete the mini-competition process was 'unnecessarily bureaucratic'.

In a letter to stakeholders, head of primary care Julie Dandridge said: "It was important the CCG completed the process of assessment to ensure we were confident that the arrangements being put in place at the practice would deliver sustainable services of a quality that would be expected."