Two local GP practices with more than 24,000 patients will be moving into the Altrincham Health and Wellbeing Centre next month.
St Johns Medical Centre and Barrington Medical Centre, both currently based in Altrincham, will be moving into the first floor of the controversial £24million town centre facility – see our exclusive first look inside the centre here.
St Johns will be moving in from 8am on Monday 4th November, with Barrington Medical Centre following on Monday 11th November.
Both practices had been due to be one of the six original tenants at the 88,000 sq ft centre but withdrew when the CCG discovered a funding gap of £1.9m and went back on an agreement to let the practices move in on a cost-neutral basis.
However, as we reported in June, Trafford CCG agreed to let the practices move in on a cost-neutral basis.
The arrival of the new tenants ends a stalemate that has seen the centre lie dormant for 13 months at a cost to the CCG of £51,000 per week.
Patients attached to the two practices will be able to park on-site for free, while the practices will have access to additional clinical rooms that will enable them to increase clinical work, such as research and training.
Dr Marik Sangha, GP Partner at St Johns Medical Centre, said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming patients to our new modern home. This move heralds an exciting new chapter for the practice enabling us to continue to provide quality care for our patients within larger, modern premises with more than treble the amount of parking we currently provide.”
Dr Nick Macdonald, GP Partner from Barrington Medical Centre, added: “We are excited to be moving into the new purpose-built premises where we can continue to deliver holistic family medicine with continuity of care. The state-of-the-art environment will be beneficial for patients and staff as we develop our services in line with modern primary care.”
St Johns Medical Centre will close to patients at its practice on St Johns Road in Altrincham at 1pm on Friday 1st November, while Barrington Medical Centre will close at 1pm on Friday 8th November. Patients requiring medical advice when the practices are closed are asked to call 111 to speak to NHS111.
Martyn Pritchard, Accountable Officer at Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “This is a really positive step forward for the centre and for Altrincham, where our priority is to provide residents with high quality healthcare services from the building that meets their needs.
“We continue to progress talks with further healthcare services who we soon hope to be able to announce will also be moving into the building.”
It’s already been announced that the top floor of the centre will be converted into office space at a cost of £1.5m.
