Blackpool surgery plan 'could help cut hospital waiting lists'

More than 250 people have signed a petition calling on town hall planners to have a change of heart over proposals to extend Arnold Medical Centre in South Shore.

The surgery wants to build four new consulting rooms to provide additional treatments such as physiotherapy and podiatry, which patients say will help ease pressure on waiting lists at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

But Blackpool Council’s planning committee rejected an application seeking permission for the scheme in December.

Margaret Seddon, chair of the patient participation group at Arnold Medical Centre, said: “These plans would benefit the whole community by providing vital health services close to where people live and reducing waiting lists and pressure on the hospital.

“But all the council seems bothered about is whether there are enough parking spaces or bins.”

The medical centre on St Annes Road, whose three GPs look after 5,250 patients, is part of the South Shore Primary Care Network which also includes Abbeydale, Highfield and Stonyhurst surgeries.

This means it can access NHS funding from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which it wants to use to provide four consulting rooms within a single storey extension at the rear of the existing site.

Ms Seddon added: “We need to look at different ways of working now because the Covid pandemic has put an awful lot of pressure on our hospitals.

“GP surgeries should be supported in what they want to do, which is to provide extra care such as physiotherapy. We also have a cancer care co-ordinator and a mental health worker.

“Providing more services here would reduce pressure on acute services and I think the planning committee should take another look at this.”

Jenny Fitzsimmons, who is also a patient at the surgery, added: “The demands on the hospital are outrageous.

“I recently spoke to someone who was waiting four months for physiotherapy and that is for an appointment on the telephone. How can that be right?

“Instances such as this demonstrate why we need to support the excellent work of surgeries such as Arnold Medical Centre.”

Meriel Carrdus, practice manager at Arnold Medical Centre, said fresh talks were being held with town hall planners.

She said: “Our architect is revisiting the designs and is in contact with the planning department at the council.

“We are awaiting a response from that, and are hopeful the council will reconsider in our favour, taking into account the wider issues.”

The planning committee turned down the application on the recommendation of planning officers, who said the property which began life as a doctor’s house, had been extended six times already and there was no longer any room on the site for further expansion.

In their report they said: “The need to develop the practice to benefit the community is acknowledged but it is not considered that the current application site is sustainable as a location for the type of development proposed and the growth desired.”

One objection was received from a resident on Lennox Gate, while a letter of support was submitted by Health Education England which said the extension would enable the practice to take on additional medical students for the benefit of all surgeries in the wider area.

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