A doctors’ surgery is planning to merge with two others to “make the practice more efficient”.

The Cedars Surgery in Swanley is looking to merge with The Oaks Partnership in November.

The partnership includes The Oaks in Nightingale Way and Hextable Surgery in Main Road, Hextable.

According to Care Quallity Commission reports carried out in 2018, The Cedars catered for 9,314 patients and The Oaks had 11,200 on its books.

In a statement on its website, The Cedars Surgery wrote: “We are planning to call ourselves Swanley Medical Centre and keep the names of the three buildings as the historic names – Oaks, Cedars and Hextable.

“All registered patients will be able to access all of our sites which are listed here so Oaks patients who live closer to Hextable can request an appointment at that site.”

The practice said the reason for the merger is so it can share systems and processes across its sites to “make the practice more efficient”.

It continued: “Currently our team have to run two computer systems alongside each other, which is proving more and more difficult, and is not an efficient use of resources.

“This is particularly difficult and time consuming, especially for booking patients in for their vaccinations.

“Once the systems are merged, there will be just one computer system for all patients. Patients will see no change to their services other than being able to deal with your queries more quickly.”