hello@lingfieldppg.org.uk
20 November 2024

Attendees: Surgery - Dr Rahi Chandarana, Dr Sal Qureshi, PPG - Clive Jecks, Ryan Howard, Rev Ian Whitley, Claire Rowley

Apologies: Viv Hepworth

The doctors provided information on the proposed development of Lingfield House into retirement units.

  1. Dr James Gardner acting as liaison between surgery and developers
  2. New intake of elderly residents will include
    1. Orchard Court: 54 flats
    2. St Piers: 150 dwellings
    3. Lingfield House would add a further 107.
    4. Total of above would be likely to add approximately 500 elderly residents with increased care needs
  3. Patients registered with surgery has increased
    1. 1984 9,100
    2. 2019 10,400
    3. 2024 11,300
    4. Projection 11,800
  4. Current building 50 years old
    1. Was good in its time, but unsuitable for modern practice
    2. Digitised notes resulted in storeroom being turned into clinical space
    3. Influx of elderly residents would involve acceptance of large volumes of written documents, requiring room to revert from clinical to storage
    4. Existing space is 3,500 sq ft. Proposal offers 10,000 with 8,400 usable initially
  5. Proposal is for “land swap”
    1. GP practice owns the asset, but NHS England would ensure that NHS England keeps any net gain on the transaction
    2. The site cannot be sold or developed for 18 years.
    3. The partners are both approximately 40 years old.
    4. Memorandum of Understanding stipulates that any agreement reached with promoters is embedded in any subsequent developer's contract
  6. Claire Rowley asked how much confidence the doctors have in their ability to attract staff with the new location if it proceeds and they both expressed a high level of confidence, citing the fact that
    1. They are both trainers and could accommodate a training stream, meaning that they would have access to a pool of newly trained staff.
    2. Existing staff unlikely to leave because of proximity to existing site
  7. The doctors noted a number of inaccuracies in the leaflet that has been dropped to households in the area. They emphasised that:

all communications on the matter will come from PPG

Claire summary

On Friday 15th November 2024, four members of the Lingfield Surgery PPG met with the two GP partners, Dr Chandarana and Dr Qureshi.

The aim was to understand their thoughts on the new proposed purpose built health centre and hear how viable this was for Lingfield Surgery. 

The GPs explained they’d been in consultation with numerous parties and made it clear their only  priority regarding the proposed development is the health of the community. 

We heard the GPs are positive about the prospect of a new health centre and feel that a facility of this type would improve the health facilities available to the community. 

The current building is 50 years old, and no longer large enough for the increasing number of registered patients. A new purpose built health centre would not only benefit the community, but also improve staff recruitment and retention, in a struggling NHS climate. 

With no proposed alternatives in the short term, this proposal could future proof and meet the needs for the healthcare of the Lingfield community going forward. 

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