A GP surgery where a nurse is working in a former storage cupboard is urging its integrated care board (ICB) to find a new practice site before it is forced to close its list to new patients.
Woodstock Surgery staff and a local MP have said the practice urgently needs new premises to meet the demands of the town’s growing population.
The Oxfordshire-based surgery – which serves 9,705 patients – uses facilities built in the 1960s that have been described ‘as not fit for purpose’ and unable to meet staff or patient needs.
Calum Miller, Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, said GP staff want to expand the practice but have not been able to access ‘sufficient capital from the integrated care board’.
Last week, he raised the issue in the House of Commons to the health and social care secretary, describing how part of the surgery’s roof had collapsed during heavy rain last September and that the practice nurse was seeing patients ‘in a broom cupboard’.
Speaking to Nursing in Practice this week, he said: ‘The current facilities are not fit for purpose, with a nurse working from a former storage cupboard.
‘Despite continued efforts by local and town councillors, successive governments have failed to invest in local healthcare, bringing Woodstock Surgery to the brink.’
Last summer, the practice warned of a potential ‘crisis’ with 600 new homes planned for the surrounding area.
Mr Miller stressed that the practice ‘cannot take more housing without more GP capacity’.
According to the MP, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB have turned down proposals for a surgery replacement in Hensington, but stressed Woodstock urgently needed a ‘new modern facility’ to meet the town’s needs.
Mr Miller said the ICB is responsible for meeting its ongoing practice facilities costs and, without support from the ICB, no project for an alternative site can proceed.
‘This has been a major block to the efforts of local councillors to progress the project over recent years. I am committed to fighting for the people of Woodstock,’ he said.
‘I will continue to press the ICB and relevant ministers for the resources and support our community deserves, so we can get Woodstock the new surgery it deserves.’
A spokesperson for the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB told Nursing in Practice that Woodstock Surgery has had ‘long standing issues’ with its premises and that work had been done ‘over the years’ to try and find a ‘solution’ to these.
‘ICBs do not have access to sufficient capital to invest in new primary care estate. Small amounts are available annually which allow small re-configurations to be done, including the conversion of non-clinical rooms to clinical rooms,’ they added.
The spokesperson said the ICB is ‘encouraged’ by the government’s recent earmarking of GP estate funding in the October budget.
The budget also included plans to increase National Insurance, with employer NI contributions (NICs) being increased from 13.8% to 15%.
Last year, GPNs speaking at the RCN’s annual congress said they had been forced to turn cleaning cupboards into clinic rooms and were struggling to take on new nursing students because of a lack of appropriate space and buildings.
