Long-awaited health centre given a boost
FACILITY WAS FIRST PROPOSED 15 YEARS AGO
A NEW medical centre first proposed 15 years ago has cleared its final hurdle after securing funding approval.
It means building work on a site in
Lowfield Road, Anlaby, could before the end of the year.
The funding sign-off by the East Riding Clinical Commissioning Group marks a significant chapter in a saga which started in 2005 when the idea of a new primary care facility serving a cluster of start west Hull villages was first mooted.
Three years later the project was approved by health trust bosses, but then stalled because a suitable site could not be identified.
Now the new centre will be created on a 25-acre site, forming part of a wider development which includes 200 new homes and an extension of the nearby Spire Hull and East Riding hospital.
It will provide a range of medical services for patients in the Harthill Primary Care Network, which runs GP surgeries in Anlaby, Cottingham, Hessle, North Ferriby, Swanland and Willerby.
Jim Hickey, practice manager at the Willerby and Swanland surgery since 2005 and now support manager for Harthill, said: “We have struggled for space, because we don’t have a hub. This will provide that hub and enable us to bring in specialist services.
“It doesn’t take anything away from the services we can provide to patients in Willerby and Swanland, but, as a specialist building, it can provide something that isn’t available elsewhere, new services and better access.
“None of the current surgeries have the ability to host those services and the community has been under-served as a result.
“We will take our existing team of around 33 people and although it won’t change immediately we will bring in those new roles and specialists and the team will increase over the next five years.
“We are an expanding practice with about 1,500 houses being built in the Haltemprice area alone and we need nurses, mental health workers, healthcare practitioners and pharmacists.”
Site owners Beverley-based Lovel Developments will oversee the construction of the new centre.
Managing director Philip Lovel said: “The next step for us is to appoint the contractors for the project and we will aim to do that quickly.
“We would like to start work at the site this year and we would expect construction to take about 12 months to complete.”
The facility will house 15 consulting rooms for GPS and other health professionals, a health education area and meeting rooms and space for support and administration staff.