Urgent care closes doors

Surf City Urgent Care and Family Medicine's doors are locked, the windows are closed and the parking lot's empty. Patients are left confused. "I don't know what they're gonna do about it," said Ken Brietske, a patient. "Nobody's called." Ken Brietske was hoping to see a doctor at the facility after he came down with a cold this weekend. He's been a patient at Surf City for almost three years. "The staff has been very good to me, they know me when I walk in," he said. But signs on the doors and windows tell patients to go to Seabreeze Physicians in Hampstead. Patients say they were not told the the practice was closing. "It's pretty upsetting 'cause now it disrupts what I gotta do," Brietske said. "I'm sure they're gonna be back-logged." Dr. Seaborn Blair was the primary doctor at Surf City until he was laid off. He says patients should be notified before a medical practice closing its doors. "They have a right to choose where they go and they have a right to their medical records," Blair said. Dr. Blair says he has and will continue to make house calls to his patients until he can open his own practice. "I have not abandoned them. This is an abrupt closure, and I'll do everything I can to continue to take care of them and their needs," Blair said. But for those without house calls, patients aren't sure where they'll seek medical attention. And they're left wondering about past and future doctor visits. "Obviously they've charged my insurance so I gotta go and pursue getting some results back," said Brietske. "I'll decide after that." Patients under Dr. Blair's care can call him at (910) 470-2818.