Plans to move Shrewsbury doctors practice will safeguard future

The partners of Shrewsbury's Riverside Medical Practice have said the plans for a new surgery at Raven Meadows will give patients "the services and standards they richly deserve".

A planning application for a new practice is currently being considered by Shropshire Council.

A statement from the partners of the practice says that the new premises are vital because of doubts over the future of the Riverside Shopping Centre.

It states: "It has taken many years to reach this point in the practice’s long history and this stage is now crucially important to its future. The existing building is owned by Standard Life and is included in the plans for the redevelopment of the Riverside Shopping Mall and Pride Hill Shopping Centre. The practice has no security of tenure and its future at its current site cannot be guaranteed.

"The proposed development will safeguard the future of this longstanding and essential town centre general practice and provide the modern, up-to-date facilities necessary to enable the practice to continue to serve the current practice population and absorb extra demand as the population of Shrewsbury increases. The practice has always been passionate about maintaining a presence in the town centre and remains determined to continue to provide a friendly, patient-orientated and responsive service; the site, design and layout of the new building will allow for this."

The new premises would only be a few hundred metres from the current site and the building would be made up of four floors.

The partners have said that the facilities will provide a better service for patients.

They said: "The current premises is now over 30 years old and no longer provides the space, quality of accommodation and facilities necessary to enable the practice to function effectively. This has a daily impact on both patients and staff and limits the activities and services the practice is able to undertake and/or offer. The proposed new building will address a number of these issues and provide greatly improved accommodation which will benefit both patients and staff alike. More importantly, the long-term future of the practice will be secured so that it can continue to offer the care and support - and more - to its patients from an accessible, town centre location.

"The building will allow for accommodation comprising fully equipped consulting and treatment rooms, improved facilities for patients - including spacious waiting areas, more toilet and baby changing facilities, lifts to all floors etc - and the choice of an on-site pharmacy. New technologies will be incorporated – including a much needed state of the art telephone system and greater security arrangements."

A design and access statement as part of the application revealed that the ground floor lobby will have a main staircase and lift to upper floors.

Patients would enter from the street into a lobbied staircase and ascend to the first floor where the main patient reception and waiting area for the clinical services would be located together with the pharmacy.

An interview room is planned for next to the reception which would allow any distressed patients to sit away from the main waiting area. It would also be used to isolate any patient suspected of having a communicable medical condition.

Patients would be directed to the upper floors and a treatment suite on the second floor would allow for minor clinical procedures to be undertaken under local anaesthetic

The plan would relieve pressure on acute services at local hospitals. Visiting surgeons would where possible be able to offer patients operations within their own surgery rather than having to travel long distances to larger hospitals.