A new health centre for residents of St Peter’s and North Laine Medical Centres will be finished and operational in 2020.
RESIDENTS who use St Peter’s and North Laine Medical Centres are set to benefit from a brand new purpose-built surgery under plans to merge the practices, which has come a step closer with a council proposal to lease land to enable the development.
Brighton & Hove City Council has approved a proposal by the owner of St Peter’s Medical Centre to purchase a long lease of the Oxford Street car park to re-develop and expand the existing health centre that adjoins the site.
The development will provide modern, fit for purpose and integrated primary care premises, serving more than 16,000 local patients. The plan is for both St Peter’s Medical Centre and North Laine Medical Centre practices to merge into the new premises which will continue to operate throughout the redevelopment.
The Council has been working closely with partners, including NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Sussex Partnership NHS trust and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust to deliver estates developments for modern premises.
Building on recent proposals at Preston Barracks and 62/63 Old Steine the centre will include the integration of on site community mental health services.
Councillor Daniel Yates, Leader of the Council and chair of the Policy, Resources & Growth Committee, which approved the proposal on October 11, said: “This is a great example of how we can provide much-needed local services by working together as partners. This proposal will provide high quality health services to 16,000 residents with modern, improved facilities for patients and staff.”
Brighton and Hove CCG has secured capital of £1.24m from the Estate and Technology Transformation Fund to help towards financing the project.
Dr David Supple, Clinical Chair of the CCG, added: “We have been notified by the partners at St Peter’s Medical Centre and North Laine Medical Centre of their plans to come together to form a single larger practice with operating out of brand-new, purpose-built premises, offering the surgery greater stability and sustainability for the future.
“Both practices are currently sited in premises that are considered unfit for purpose, and the new single larger practice will be co-located with a local NHS trust, which will offer opportunities for more integrated health services to be provided closer to people’s homes.
“There is no need for patients registered at either surgery to do anything to get a new GP; they will be automatically taken care of as part of the joining together process.
“The development will be undertaken over several phases to ensure patients can still access GP services easily, and any disruption to patients experience will be kept to a minimum.”
Oxford Street is a small pay and display car park with 36 spaces. There will be some parking spaces, including disabled bays, for users of the new centre, and capacity in the nearby London Road car park. Twenty six bus routes stop within 100 metres of the existing surgery.
Work is set to commence in March 2019 with completion in 2020.
To read the committees report (agenda item no 63), click here:
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