Wait is over at £13m health centre

A MULTI-MILLION pound health centre which is expected to cut waiting times will open to patients in Bingley on Monday.

The centre, which has cost 13m, will offer more choice of appointments and longer opening hours in the future, health chiefs have promised.

Bingley Medical Practice and Springfield Surgery – two of Bingley’s long established GP practices – will be based at the centre.

Both have been heavily involved in the design of their new premises, which will provide extra space to allow them to expand their health services for local people, including those from Bingley hospital.

Dr Richard Newell, of Bingley Medical Practice, said: “We are delighted with our new premises, which will allow us to provide better health care in a modern, more spacious environment.

“The only thing that changes on February 1 is the practices’ address. People will still get their care from their usual team of receptionists, doctors and nurses.”

It is hoped that the centre will mean that more hospital services are offered in a community setting, closer to peoples’ homes, and that this will lead to improvements to patient care through more co-ordinated and closer working relationships between many clinical teams.

There will also be improved access for mental health patients in a familiar environment.

Patients and residents of Bingley are being urged to tour the facilities on February 6, when GPs from the two practices on site will host an open day at the new Canalside Healthcare Centre at Kingsway between 10am and 1pm.

Dr Simon Gazeley, GP from Springfield Surgery, said: “The open day is a great opportunity for anyone to come and look round this wonderful building and talk to our staff about what services we can offer in the future, ask any questions and share any concerns they may have.

“All patients from both practices will automatically be transferred over to Canalside – there is no need to re-register. We will continue to operate as two independent practices, although there will be more opportunities to work together, which should be beneficial to patients.”

In both practices there will be demonstrations of how to use the new self-care rooms where patients can check their blood pressure, weight and body mass index (BMI) and use the internet for healthcare information.

Priesthorpe Medical Centre and Drs Jennings and Robson merged to form Bingley medical practice last July, but this is the first time that the two practices have come together on one site.

Although the two practices will continue to operate independently, there will be opportunities for them to work together to provide better services for patients.

Plans are still being developed for telemedicine which involves on-screen consultations with hospital consultants from the practice, a Warfarin clinic and ultrasound scanning.

Besides GP services, the centre will offer an on-site pharmacy, district nurses, health visitors, mental health teams, physiotherapy, orthotics, contraception advice and sexual health services, podiatry and minor surgery.

It will also provide consultant services which will ensure that hospital clinics can be provided closer to peoples’ homes.

New facilities will include a health education room, three outpatient consultant rooms, four treatment rooms used by midwifery and sexual health teams, and two counselling rooms.

A community caf will open in the near future.

The health care centre was developed by Bradford and Airedale Care Partnerships Limited (LIFTCo) – a joint venture between the private and public sectors.