Gower Place Practice to Close?

UCL “concerned about property, not people”.

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The Gower Place Practice is expected to move as part of UCL’s new masterplan, in which the practice is apparently given no mention.

Despite UCL’s recent high profile plans to redevelop the Bloomsbury area and build a new campus in Stratford, the Gower Place Practice have been asked to move, but as of yet have received, “no acceptable offers for new accommodation”, which could have a serious effect on their ability to treat UCL students and staff, according to Dr Claire Elliot.

At a public meeting in UCLU, which around 40 students and UCL staff attended, the Practice’s doctors and dentists vented their disbelief at the way UCL had handled the situation, with serious reservations about the future of the service as a hub for UCL health care.

Dr Caroline Jones, head of dentistry, said that UCL were, “concerned about property, not people”, and that their masterplan for the future had serious issues in it which needed to be addressed.

She argued that not only was the health care of UCL students and staff undermined, but that their “international prestige was at risk”, and that threatening the existence of the practice as a UCL specific centre could be an embarrassment for the university.