Plans to build a new doctors’ surgery in Brighton will be given a boost if councillors can be persuaded to bridge a gap in NHS rules and funding.
They are being asked to back a scheme for a new surgery at the Preston Barracks site in Lewes Road.
But NHS reforms prevent the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) from stepping in and taking on a lease at this stage.
Brighton and Hove City Council has more freedom so – in the spirit of partnership – it is preparing to sign the lease in an area more used to the closure of surgeries.
In the past few years two nearby surgeries have shut – on the retirement of Dr Amrut Shah, in Lewes Road, last year and at the now demolished Willow House in Heath Hill Avenue, Bevendean, where student flats are planned.
No public indication has been given as to which surgery or surgeries would go in the new building on the Preston Barracks site.
But the Allied Medical Practice has two GP (general practice) surgeries near by – the Church Surgery, in Saunders Park Rise, and the School House Surgery, in Hertford Road.
And a number of Brighton University students are registered with the Moulsecoomb site medical practice in the Cockcroft Building, in Lewes Road, which is run by the Stanford Medical Centre, in Preston Road, Brighton.
One or two of the three surgeries would seem to be the most likely future occupants of the new premises, with consolidation and co-location of practices a growing trend in Brighton and Hove.
More than 2,000 potential new patients are expected to live in the area once the £300 million Preston Barracks scheme is completed.
It includes 369 homes and 1,338 student flats as well as a Central Research Laboratory for Brighton University and a new home for the university’s business school.
The project is a collaboration between the council, the university and the developer U+I, formerly known as Cathedral. The same developer is behind the current building work in Circus Street, Brighton.
The Preston Barracks Surgery is part of a pattern of new provision, following the Wish Park Surgery’s move to Portland Road, Hove, and the combined Trinity practice, in nearby Goldstone Villas. Both have pharmacies beside them.
Woodingdean Medical Centre occupies a new purpose-built surgery, in Warren Road, and two GP surgeries in Whitehawk Road, Brighton, share relatively new premises.
Other examples include two surgeries in a revamped building in Saltdean and Ardingly Court Surgery, which is due to move shortly to refurbished premises next to the Royal Pavilion.
The current advert on the Ardingly Court website for a GP is a reminder of the other challenge – a national challenge – recruiting enough doctors.
In Brighton and Hove, the council and the CCG are trying to tackle issues around recruitment and premises.
As the Preston Barracks decision is likely to show, building surgeries is proving easier just now than staffing them.
