New Facility
The NHS will own the new facility.
A property lease cannot prevent an owner from selling their business.
Four of the existing practice sites are owned by the GP partners. In the event of a sale of these properties, whatever commercial arrangements the GP partners have in place will dictate where the proceeds of the sale would go. The other two properties are leased.
It is unlikely that this will happen in relation to the cost of the building.
Of the patient lists combined from our six GP practices, as well as the increase in patients due to population growth we anticipate in the future, the hub will be developed on the basis of a total practice patient list of circa. 55,000.
The GP practices involved in the Shrewsbury Health and Wellbeing Hub have informed NHS Shropshire Telford and Wrekin that their buildings are no longer fit for purpose and surveys have identified that some of the buildings require a substantial amount of work.
Some of the current buildings do not have sufficient space to meet future demand, which will ultimately impact on patient accessibility. There is not sufficient space to house the new staff roles that the NHS is employing. In addition, there are also other occupational and legal matters associated with the buildings which need to be addressed, such as disability access and safety.
Furthermore, in a 2019 review, approximately 25% of General Practice buildings in England were identified as not suitable for present or future service delivery needs. We are therefore looking at a new way of working that will help General Practice provide better services for our patients in the future.
Current General Practice buildings in England vary hugely and often do not allow for different health and care services to be housed under one roof or different services being available at different times. Some GP practices also aren’t very modern, and they don’t offer the latest facilities.
NHS commissioners can’t influence this, so it means that in many parts of the country we are not making best use of our General Practice buildings or therefore of taxpayer’s money.
This would be a decision made by the owners of each building, either private landlords, GP partners or otherwise. It would not be a decision concerning NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.