EARL Howe, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, has reassured concerned people in Crondall that rural GP practices are not under threat, after doubts emerged over the future of the village surgery. It comes after Lord Lea of Crondall, with the support of fellow Crondall residents Lord Bramall and Viscount Tenby, expressed concerns about the growing pressures on the viability of rural practices. Due to Crondall's lack of a pharmacy, the village surgery has the right to dispense prescribed medicines to patients living within a mile of the surgery, providing no other pharmacy services are available. But under the so-called one-mile rule, Lord Lea said Crondall Surgery could lose 25 per cent of its dispensary patients to a new pharmacy proposed as part of major development in nearby Church Crookham. For full story, see this week's Farnham Herald.