Lack of GP surgeries ‘won’t halt housing’
DIFFICULT TO STOP HOMES BEING BUILT, SAY COUNCIL BOSSES
COUNCIL bosses say they would need “overwhelming” proof of a GP shortage to call a halt on massive new housing developments in Newcastle until new surgeries are built.
In December, the city’s healthcare chiefs came under fire for not creating a GP practice on the Great Park, which will eventually be home to 14,000 residents in the north of the city.
But councillors were told at a meeting of Newcastle City Council’s health scrutiny committee on Thursday that the authority would struggle to refuse planning permission for developments on grounds that there would be insufficient healthcare provision.
Sarah Davitt, from the council’s planning team, said: “If the authority were to refuse planning permission we would need a very strong evidence base to say that this is unacceptable without healthcare provision on that particular site. It is a really difficult discussion with any developer.
“Ultimately, it is a part of the advice that the secure from the CCG in terms of when they suggest we might need specific on-site and off-site facilities to meet the needs of a development.
“It is a difficult argument to make to a planning inspector and to a developer, to say that we are refusing an application because the GP practices are oversubscribed.”
She added that there would need to be “clear and overwhelming” evidence to say that the harm caused by a lack of GP services would outweigh the benefits of a new housing project towards meeting the authority’s house-building targets and boosting the city’s economy.
When planning permission is granted for major new housing estates, the council often asks developers to pay towards the cost of building new GP practices for future residents through Section 106 agreements.
But Jackie Cairns, NewcastleGateshead Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) director of strategy and integration, said that opening new doctors’ surgeries was not always the best way of ensuring provision for new residents.
She said: “I know the council has housing targets it needs to meet and that does not always line up with health aspirations.
“Some of the difficulty we have is patient choice and the way that the money comes through and what it can be spent on.
“We are in the business of ensuring that there is sufficient health resources - that does not necessarily articulate into bricks and mortar.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Wendy Taylor, the committee’s chair, raised fears that companies offering onlineonly GP appointments could move into the city.
She said: “I understand wanting to make a GP available online, but it will do damage to local people wanting to see their doctor in person.”
Dominic Slowie, the CCG’s director of primary care, suggested that the council should not be asking housing developers to contribute cash towards new GP surgeries - but instead earmark the funding for a wider range of healthcare facilities that would give the CCG more options.
He added that the CCG believes most existing residents of the Great Park and similar new-build estates are happy with their existing GP services, and warned that any new surgeries could put others at risk of closure.
Dr Slowie said: “Our evidence suggests that most people on those estates are registered with a nearby GP and are happy about that situation - some of it is about doctor-patient relationships built up over many years.
“If there was an exodus of patients then those practices then become under threat.”