Biddulph Primary Care Centre opens its doors to the public 9 July 2013

The new £10m Biddulph Primary Care Centre in Wharf Road has opened its doors to the public.

The state-of-the-art building, which was commissioned by the NHS and developed through the Prima 200 LIFT partnership with private sector development partner Prime, includes two of the town’s GP practices; biddulphdoctors and Biddulph Valley Surgery. It also offers a wide range of services including: physiotherapy, district nursing, speech and language therapy, family planning, podiatry, midwifery, as well as an onsite pharmacy. The centre serves the local community in Biddulph – and surrounding areas – bringing much needed, improved health facilities into the heart of the town.

Jill Eardly, practice manager of biddulpdoctors, said: “The feedback we’ve had from the public has been positive. All in all, today couldn’t have gone much better. It’s a lovely building, far better than our old practice.”

Val Wootton, practice manager for Biddulph Valley Surgery, said: “We had been at our old premises since 1974, but there wasn’t any more room and we just had to leave. This facility is just wonderful. It’s purpose built, big, clean and convenient for patients because they have so many services all under one roof.”

Ethel Josie O’Sullivan, who visited her GP on Monday, said: “It looks like a fine building and it’s lovely on the inside. Everything is here so people won’t have to travel to other sites for their care.”

Dr Mark Shapley, Chairman of the North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group said: “The new multi million pounds centre in Biddulph will serve around 100,000 patients a year and is a fantastic state of the art building that will bring together a range of services under one roof. It will be a real asset that the whole community can be proud of.”

Stuart Poynor, Chief Executive of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership
NHS Trust, said: “We are delighted to be able to continue to provide quality community care to all of our patients in the new health centre.”

The Biddulph Primary Care Centre was created in a partnership between Prima 200 LIFT Company and the NHS. The final stage of the build has been overseen by NHS Property Services, acting on behalf of Community Health Partnerships. The new centre is one of over 300 hundred facilities throughout England developed as part of the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme, which brings together public and private partnerships to create modern, purpose-built, clean and safe facilities for GPs, pharmacies and a wide range of health and community service providers.

Dr Sarah Raper, Community Health Partnerships’ Executive Director and Prima 200 board member commented: “Our aim is to create modern, high quality facilities that help to improve the health and wellbeing of local people. Biddulph Primary Care Centre will achieve that aim and be valued by both patients and the health care professionals who will work there.”

The development incorporates a range of green features in pursuit of the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Excellent rating. Solar PV and solar thermal panels on the roof will contribute to the building’s electricity and heating, whilst the design allows for maximum daylight in all rooms, reducing reliance on electricity.