Health chiefs have agreed to close a doctor's surgery in Wyke following a long running consultation with patients.

Patients at Hanson Place Surgery in Wyke will now be re-allocated to Sunnybank Medical Centre in Wyke, The Plantations at Low Moor and where appropriate, Royds Healthy Living Centre in Buttershaw.

Members of Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust agreed the move at a board meeting after hearing how the single-handed surgery had a declining patients list and was expensive to run.

The decision follows a public consultation which started in October and ended on December 31.

Of the 1,100 patients at the practice, 94 responded, and the tPCT received a petition containing 129 signatures of people who "strongly object to the closure of Hanson Place Surgery".

Objections included not wanting to register with a large, group practice, patients having medical conditions such as anxiety and stress, which made attending a large practice impossible for them and others said access to appointments was very good, which they felt would not be the case at a group practice.

Hanson Place is managed by the tPCT and since the retirement of Dr Louis D'Arcy in July last year, it has been staffed by locum GPs.

Board members were told the patient list was declining and this would make it difficult to recruit a full-time GP.

The cost of maintaining the surgery is also disproportionately high compared to other practices and is in fact the most expensive in Bradford and Airedale district as a whole.

Helen Hirst, director of service development, said if the practice was to be kept open the trust would have to provide extra investment to allow it to grow and make it a viable business. She said: "We have consulted with the patients but we have to accept that some will not be happy."

Trust chairman John Chuter said the organisation needed to invest in smoothing the change for patients of Hanson Place. "We ought to be involved to ensure the transition is done in a smooth way" he said.