Patients demanded their doctor’s surgery be saved after it emerged all three GPs were planning to leave.

More than 80 were at a public meeting to discuss the departure of two.

Husband and wife Dr Abdul and Dr Rifat Ghaffar, are due to retire on March 31 after more than 30 years at Abbey Square Surgery which serves Mossley estate in Bloxwich. But there was uproar as chiefs admitted another departure.

The meeting was told that the remaining GP, Dr Saema Saleem, was also due to step down on March 23.

It had been hoped Dr Saleem would take over the reins. Phil Griffin, assistant director of primary care contracting for NHS Walsall, told the meeting the surgery would remain open and an interim GP brought in. He said that “no decision had been made” about the future of the site.

Options for the surgery, which is owned by the Ghaffars, included renting and refurbishing it so that Dr Saleem and another doctor could run it, or for patients to transfer to All Saints and Pinfold surgeries situated about a mile away in Field Road in Bloxwich town centre.

The resignation of Dr Saleem, a mother-of three, was revealed by campaigner Dennis Ray, aged in his 60s, who told yesterday’s meeting many people had written letters and emails to the trust and received no replies.

Mr Ray, a concert singer of Enderley Drive, Bloxwich, said: “There is a communication problem because letters have not been answered. What a lot of these people don’t know is that Dr Saleem is leaving because she has resigned.

“I also understand that two other doctors have offered to run this place. We have not had answers so you can understand why we have no confidence in the consultation process.”

In response Walsall NHS director of public health Professor Sam Ramaiah told the meeting: “It is not for the trust to go public about the position with Dr Saleem, it is a matter for her and the surgery.”