PATIENTS are being called to a public meeting tonight over new Government rules threatening rural surgeries.

Doctors at the Wychwoods Surgery in west Oxfordshire are heading a local campaign to keep their ability to dispense prescriptions.

They have already met with other GPs at Burford, Charlbury, Chipping Norton and Long Hanborough to co-ordinate local protest.

Wychwoods GP Dr David Nixon said the meeting, at Shipton-under-Wychwood village hall, 7.15pm, will be told that under the new rules surgeries will no longer be able to dispense drugs if there is a pharmacy within one mile of the practice, and that it could threaten their financial viability.