PATIENTS at three Gwent GP surgeries are angered by new waiting-times of up to four weeks following the closure of a nearby practice last October.

An influx of 500 more patients from the surgery in Mill Road, Pontnewynydd, brought numbers at the Old Road practice in Abersychan, the second largest in Torfaen, up to 11,000.

Other patients were re-located to the Churchwood and Trosnant Lodge practices in Pontypool. Torfaen Local Health Board (LHB) closed Mill Road surgery after its long-time GP retired and the vacancy could not be filled.

Tom Gould, 80, of Machine Meadow, Pontnewynydd, is one of the 3,000 patients dispersed to other practices in Torfaen.

Mr Gould has had to wait twice as long at the Abersychan surgery to see a doctor as he previously did.

"It's extremely frustrating," he said. "The service is becoming overstretched. I've had to wait a fortnight just for an appointment for a check-up. You could die in that time.

"There's an added inconvenience in that I could always get a parking space at Mill Road, but now I have to drive around Abersychan looking for a space on the street because the surgery car park is full."

Joyce Gregory, Torfaen councillor for Pontnewynydd, campaigned against the closure of the surgery from the start.

"I've taken dozens of calls from constituents in the last six weeks, who have been transferred to other practices, complaining of waiting-times of up to four weeks," she said.

Mrs Gregory added the changes were affecting not just the new patients but the existing ones.

"A lot of these patients are elderly and they've all paid their dues in National Insurance contributions, which the LHB were happy to take," she said.

"They deserve better."