A VILLAGE doctor’s practice is to close.

The Mapplewell branch of St George’s Medical Practice, based in the health centre on Darton Lane, will shut its doors on December 31. It follows a three month consultation on the branch’s future with patients.

The practice, which has its main site a few miles away at Roundhouse Medical Centre in New Lodge, has three GPs, Dr Nick Balac, Dr Moises Fernando Alvarez Escurra and Dr Wajiha Farhan, who work at both sites in rotation and patients registered with the practice have access to both sites.

The closure comes after the Mapplewell branch reduced its opening hours in January 2015 due to patient demand to see a doctor in the evenings ‘becoming very minimal’.

Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle