The Scholar Green Health Centre

The first thing to say about the proposed Health Centre in Scholar Green is that I recognise it is a divisive issue. The shouting at Parish Council meetings and the numerous phone calls are proof enough! It is a shame that whatever happens, so many people will be disappointed by the result.

I have so far read numerous pieces of literature in favour and against the proposed developments. SGGFA have a website here www.sggfa.co.uk. Save our Surgery (SOS) have produced some excellent and thought provoking material.

The capital cost of the proposed new Health Centre will be funded from a new housing development at Scholar Green. Many local residents are against the housing estate, for all the usual reasons! SGGFA suggest a different site which SOS claim is not big enough. The local PCT promised to bring forward documents to prove this, but I have not had sight of these yet.

On the positive side is the fact that there is a new Health Centre on offer for an important rural community. It will be safe, modern and massively expand the medical options available to local population.

And yet the concerns still remain as to whether the "price" (around fifty houses on what is now a green field) is worth paying. Without evaluation of the alternative garage site proposed by SGGFA, it is hard to know. The problem with the garage site is that it seems to rely on an independent pharmacy for funding the capital cost of the land. This means that Drs Patterson and Co would not be able to run their profitable in house pharmacy business. Local residents allege that this is why they will not support the garage site option : Money!.. Divisive to the last... An extra frustration is that the accounts for Drs Patterson and Partners are not a matter of public record, despite the practice being publicly funded. So we can never know just *how* much money Patterson et al would lose in the event of being forced to use the garage site. Makes the conflict of interest hard to quantify.

So the planning committee decision is due soon. I intend to speak there to try to describe the issues at stake. I will report here about how it all goes.