Norwood Surgery in Southport has submitted plans to expand its premises so it can provide an even better service to patients, and to make the surgery more accessible for those with disabilities.
A planning application has been submitted to Sefton Council to create a part single storey extension at the rear of the building on 11 Norwood Avenue in Southport which would provide four new treatment rooms, a DDA toilet and a new waiting room.
In the application, Dr Simon Tobin said: “This extension is vital to the continued existence of the surgery. The premises are 120 years old and without the proposed additional consulting rooms it will be impossible to provide a level of care that our patients deserve.”
The extension would not result in any additional footfall at the premises.
Instead it would greatly enhance the experience for local families using the surgery.
In the submission, Dr Tobin said: “Over the last few years there has been a considerable increase in the number of staff who work from the premises.
“We now house three pharmacists, a mental health worker, more admin staff, two care co-ordinators, medical students, student nurses, a learning disability nurse and two GP assistants – who manage almost all their patient contacts by telephone.
“As a consequence of the hugely increased demand for rooms, we often have to ask our GPs who work from home as there are insufficient consulting rooms. This is far from ideal and inconvenient for our patients who may then have to arrange a subsequent face-to-face appointment. It impacts the capacity of the service we provide and is a poor use of precious NHS resources.
“We have reached an existential crisis where it is hard to see how we can continue to function safely without increasing consulting space.
“A number of our current consulting rooms are not accessible for wheelchair users and patients with disabilities.
“The provision of four ground floor insulation rooms would mean that people with disabilities could always access a consulting room.
“Since the pandemic, we have changed the way we consult drastically. We now operate a system of telephone triage when half to three quarters of patients can be dealt with remotely without needing to attend the surgery. As a consequence, footfall at the surgery has substantially reduced over the last five years – fewer patients are attending the surgery.
“Our patient satisfaction data shows that our surgery is regarded as one of the best in the North West and nationally.
“Our patient list is stable at 9,900. We have absolutely no wish to expand this further.
“Our practice is working at full capacity and taking on additional patients would destabilise our service.”
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