A long­ standing family doctor from Rishton has retired from his High Street practice to be replaced by a former patient who he treated from the age of eight.

Doctor K.N Agarwal, who has worked in the town for the past 34 years with a list of 1,400 Hyndburn patients, has arranged for Rishton­-born GP and former patient Doctor Rob Grayson to fill his shoes.

The doctors have signed an NHS Partnership that will merge the Rishton High Street Surgery with the nearby Great Harwood Medical Group where Doctor Grayson and his partner’s current practice.

Doctor Grayson, now 43, said of the partnership: “It’s an unusual feeling personally to be replacing Doctor Agarwal because I was born and bred in Rishton and he was my doctor until I was 18.

“He is a part of the community and has become very well acquainted with the town with a close core of loyal patients who have trusted him over the years.

“I hope I can keep up the brilliant reputation that Doctor Agarwal has created for the surgery.”

Great Harwood Medical Group, which provides care to nearly 7000 patients in Rishton, Great Harwood and Clayton­Le­Moors, has recently moved into a new purpose built Health Centre.

Doctor Grayson also hopes to expand on what is being done at the Rishton practice using new ideas from a team of young doctors.

The merging of the two practices will combine the medical services made available by the larger surgery in Great Harwood with the traditional family service that patients value so highly in the Rishton surgery.

Doctor Grayson added: “I spent a lot of time in the Rishton practice as a youngster and to take over there is a big honour.

“We hold the values of the family ethos very highly and to keep that going in Rishton, while bringing in lots of new ideas, is a priority.

“Doctor Agarwal’s will be a very difficult act to follow but hopefully people will feel that the standard of the practice hasn’t changed – there are exciting