Patients have been left devastated by the closure of their beloved GP surgery.

Deanhill Surgery in East Sheen closed permanently on Tuesday, March 31, after months of campaigning from patients and staff to keep it open.

The surgery was closed at the request of contractor Dr Antoine Sayer, but senior doctor Roger Weeks told NHS England he was willing to take on the practice.

A NHS England (London) spokesman said it had to follow procurement process when awarding contracts and it was not possible to transfer without a tendering process, which would take six to nine months.

Dr Weeks believed about 1,000 patients were not registered with another GP and he was concerned their medical records could not be transferred without access to the practice's computer which, he said, was "seized" by NHS England.

He added: "This is an act of vandalism. If you had been here on Monday and Tuesday, there was a long stream of patients here. I had to go upstairs and downstairs and see all these bereaved patients crying. It is extremely serious in the way they have been let down by NHS England. I think NHS England could have done things they said they couldn't do."

An NHS England (London) spokesman said: "Many patients have registered with neighbouring practices. There are five neighbouring practices, all within a 1.2 mile radius of the former surgery premises. Patient records have been removed for safe-keeping and will be transferred to patients’ new GP practices when they have re-registered."