Super surgery planned for Little Sisters care home site

The four acre Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home site, in Garstang Road, will soon be home to the Lytham Road Surgery in Lytham Road, Medicom Surgery in Flintoff Way, and ‘The Surgery’ – compromising of Beach Drive Surgery in Beech Drive, Drs Robb and Robb, and Moor Park, both in Garstang Road.

According to the plans, the super surgery will be a ‘single, purpose built, new building’ on the four acre site.

The care home itself, which had been running in a reduced capacity since 2016, was recently bought by HBS Healthcare and is now continuing to operate as a care home under Spiral Health CIC.

The NHS Greater Preston Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) deemed the move necessary, with the five practices ‘mostly operating from premises that are undersized and no longer fit for purpose’. Many of the premises are also said to not be compliant with disabled access rules.

A spokesman from Greater Preston CCG said: “The development will enable practices to deliver extended access to GP appointments, and eventually will deliver additional health services, which will ultimately help to reduce pressure on hospital services.

“It will also bring the potential to train more doctors and healthcare staff, as well as providing increased capacity to accommodate more residents in our area as a result of the City Deal.”

The move will see annual rental reimbursements from the Greater Preston CCG to the doctors’ surgeries more than double, increasing from £144,930 to £301,379 plus undisclosed car park related costs.

One of the project’s supporters, Dr Zak Patel of Issa Medical Centre in Deepdale, said: “There is going to be much more investment and that means that costs will increase.”

A spokesman from HBS Healthcare confirmed that a planning application for the building is set to be submitted in the spring or summer of 2018, with the build to commence in 2019 and be finished in March 2020.