New Shrewsbury town centre site secured for Riverside Medical Practice
An artist’s impression of how the new Tannery development will look
A new town centre site has been secured for Shrewsbury’s Riverside Medical Practice so it can relocate just a short distance from its current site to purpose-built premises.
Plans for the practice to move from its current site at Roushill to The Tannery development on Barker Street have been approved by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s Primary Care Commissioning Committee.
Shropshire Council agreed to invest in the work required to accommodate the practice, as part of its plans to support the regeneration of Shrewsbury’s West End.
The challenge was finding a suitable site that the practice’s 10,000 patients could easily get to that would also have modern facilities.
The practice will be based in the second block on the Tannery Site, which is currently under construction and adjacent to the student accommodation block. There are also plans for a pharmacy to be located in an adjoining ground floor unit.
Overall there will be double the number of clinical rooms in the new building. The space has also been designed so the practice can grow and there are plans to offer a range of additional services including psychological support and care for alcohol dependency. The additional space would also allow the practice to offer accommodation to local patient and self-help groups.
Work has already started on the site as part of the original building work. The new practice and pharmacy is potentially set to be finished and open in June 2020.
An artist’s impression of how the new Riverside Medical Practice will look
Dr Julian Povey, Chair of Shropshire CCG, said:
“The practice and patients at Riverside have been very patient and it has been a challenge to find a suitable site but through partnership working between the Practice, the CCG, and the Council a great solution has been put forward with The Tannery site.”
Tracy Willocks, Business Manager for Riverside Medical Practice, said:
“To finally hear that this development has been approved was overwhelming, as many years of hard work from the Riverside Team has been put in to this building project. I am ecstatic that our patients and staff will now have a building that will support our expansion of services and our vision for the future.”
Dr Sarah Harwood, GP Partner at Riverside Medical Practice, said:
“We’re delighted to be moving forward. These new premises will secure the future of the practice as we will be able to continue to offer patients from across Shrewsbury a GP service in the town centre. We are close to transport hubs, with the bus station and train station nearby.
“With the national shortage of GPs, we have been fortunate to have successfully recruited new GPs in the last 18 months. We have also extended our workforce to include a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Pharmacist. This positive outcome will enable us to continue to grow our workforce to meet the needs of our patients.
“In addition, we can now plan to expand our training programme to include more GP trainees and other health care professionals, such as Student Nurses, to secure the future of Primary Care for decades to come.”
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s deputy Leader and Cabinet member for economic growth, said:
“This is brilliant news for the Riverside Medical Practice and its patients as it means the medical practice can remain in a town centre location. It’s also great news for the council and for the town and I’m delighted that our investment has made this move possible.
“We want to help ensure the health of our residents by ensuring that there are good quality, sustainable, health services in the county. This move will ensure that this local practice has modern, fit-for-purpose facilities with space for expansion to support growth in patient numbers.”
Further information
Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is responsible for the planning and commissioning (buying) of health and care services from a range of providers for the people of Shropshire. It also has a duty to monitor these services to ensure they provide a high level of care and are value for money.
It is a clinically led organisation with 41 GP Practices and it provides healthcare services for patients across the County registered with a local GP. The CCG buys a wide range of services and these include GP and primary care services through to hospital care as well as community services and mental health services.
