\n Plans to develop a state-of-the-art health and wellbeing hub on the community hospital site in Bexton Road have now been deemed a \u2018high priority\u2019, NHS health chiefs have confirmed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The decision has been welcomed by the town\u2019s GPs who have been struggling to provide healthcare in cramped Victorian buildings.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Paddy Kearns, of Knutsford Medical Partnership, has said: \u201cWe are desperate.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re working out of four buildings, none of which is fit for purpose.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are struggling to meet demand. 2,500 new patients are expected in the next five years.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe just want a fit for purpose building which will allow us to provide a modern health care service for the 21st century.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is so much needed, it really must happen.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Partners, from left, Dr Geraint Allen, Dr Scott Vernon, Dr Louise Jackson, Dr Sean Morris, Dr Thomas, Morgan, Dr Rosemary Peel, Dr David Hans, executive manager Sam Mitchell, Dr Susan Reeves, Dr Claire McCamley, Dr Nicola Herd and Dr Paddy Kearns, S (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n Campaigners have been fighting for around 17 years to improve facilities to meet the town\u2019s growing elderly population and influx of new families.\n<\/p>\n
\n At present, 26 GPs and 115 staff look after 24,000 patients.\n<\/p>\n
\n Knutsford Medical Partnership has found a private developer willing to invest \u00a315 million to fund a new integrated health and wellbeing hub.\n<\/p>\n
\n A business case will now be drawn up.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement, a spokesman for the town\u2019s four surgeries said: \u201cKnutsford Medical Partnership are delighted to share the positive news that Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) has identified the development of an integrated neighbourhood hub in Knutsford as a high priority.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe ICB are supportive of the development of a full business case, in compliance with NHS governance processes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf the full business case is accepted as feasible, then full approval shall be supported to develop the new hub on the Knutsford Community Hospital site.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe process is expected to move forward over the next six to nine months.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis milestone reflects the significant time, effort and collaboration invested in the project so far.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe would like to thank the ICB, patients, MP Esther McVey and all involved for their continued support and commitment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The new medical centre is set to be developed on the site of Knutsford Community Hospital (Image: Google Maps)\n<\/p>\n
\n GPs, midwives, district nurses, physios, dieticians and mental health specialists and social workers could share the building with hospital consultants, equipped with all the latest diagnostics.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tatton MP Esther McVey said: \u201cThis is fantastic news and I want to thank the doctors and everyone involved in this for working so hard to get this done.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have been pushing to get this medical centre and have had meetings with ministers in Parliament and raised it many times on the floor of the house.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cKnutsford needs this new medical centre and I am delighted the ICB has now prioritised this and the business case is being drawn up.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI’ll continue to work with doctors and government ministers until we get a new practice.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside said:\u00a0\u201cFollowing the initial proposal of relocating Knutsford Medical Partnership from its current site to a new health and wellbeing hub, it was agreed that developers should now progress, as a priority, to preparing a full business case, which is the next stage in the process.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n An integrated neighbourhood hub could see a team of professionals from various health and social care sectors work together to provide coordinated, preventative, and person-centred care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to develop a state-of-the-art health and wellbeing hub on the community hospital site in Bexton Road have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-298392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}