The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A Spalding GP practice is to open a second site to fill the gap created when Johnson Hospital closes its surgery at the end of this month.
There was an outcry when the hospital-based surgery caring for around 3,000 patients, announced its closure in July.
Spalding Surgery was opened at the Johnson site when the town’s Pennygate Surgery closed in its doors for good in 2018.
Now Beechfield Medical Centre has announced it will expand and has bought the old Pennygate site.
The surgery currently offers primary care to almost 20,000 patients and will expand once the new site is ready.
“Having searched for solutions to accommodate their growing patient population and workforce, as well as expand their clinical services, the GP partners at Beechfield are delighted to announce that they have successfully purchased an additional premises on the site of the former Pennygate Health Centre,” said a statement from the NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board.
Dr Janarthanam Babu, one of the Beechfield partners, said it was a ‘very exciting chapter,’ for everyone involved.
“The new premises will be used as a branch site, in addition to our existing main site on Beechfield Gardens. The branch site will be named Beechfield West Medical Centre and all registered patients will have access to services across both sites.
“The two sites will run simultaneously and provide all the current services we offer, as well as hopefully some additional services in the future.
“There is still a lot of work to do. We are currently working with local tradesmen and contractors to bring the site up to a modern standard and hope to begin providing services in our new branch site from early 2023.”
Patients currently registered with the practice at the Johnson will be allocated another GP service in the meantime.
The Beechfield Medical Centre has asked people not to contact them for more information at this stage.
“The staff at Beechfield will keep patients all up to date as and when they know more details. There will also be opportunities to submit suggestions and feedback along the way,” says a statement.
The service at Johnson Hospital was told to improve after a Care Quality Commission inspection earlier this year.
Inspectors said the practice required improvement after they visited at the end of last year.
The NHS Integrated Care Board has asked The Voice to clarify that Beechfield’s purchase of the former Pennygate Surgery is separate to its consultation on the closure of the Spalding Surgery and where the registration of patients of that surgery will be transferred to is yet to be finalised.
