Planners have given the thumbs up for a new primary care centre building to serve patients in a Suffolk town.
Hardwicke House Group Practice currently operates from five surgery sites across Sudbury, Cornard, Bures and Clare. None of the sites is purpose built and the practice’s main base at Hardwicke House is a Grade II listed building. The buildings are too small and too old to provide modern health care services, with little scope to extend or adapt them.
The practice already serves more than 23,000 patients but that number is set to grow, with population growth and new housing developments being delivered in the area – so more space for delivering care is vital.
To meet the needs of the local population, the Hardwicke House Group Practice – together with the West Suffolk CCG and Apollo Capital Projects Development Ltd (now part of Assura) – plans to create new premises to ensure it has the space it needs for the future of care.
The proposed new facility will replace the existing surgery sites at Meadow Lane, Stour Street (Hardwicke House) and the Cornard Surgery with a replacement building in Sudbury town centre, on a site that is currently used as a lorry park. The site, next to Waitrose off Station Road, was chosen for its proximity to car parking and public transport, and because it sits centrally within the practice’s catchment area. Babergh District Council has agreed to sell the land for the scheme.
The proposed new facility will have more clinical rooms than any of the practice’s existing sites and an on-site pharmacy. The new building will be fully accessible, energy-efficient and equipped with protective screens and separate entrances and exits to use when needed. There will be 62 carparking spaces and cycle storage.
Health education space will help the practice attract new clinicians including GPs and nurses, as well as new skillsets moving into primary care.
The proposals support the NHS’s strategy to strengthen and expand the availability of local primary care services closer to home and out of the hospital, something that is echoed in the NHS Long Term Plan and local commissioning strategies.