The general public are invited to view plans of the proposed new surgery development for Belmont Surgery. An exhibition of the plans will be held on Thursday 22nd June from 4pm to 8pm at the Shanklin Community Centre, Rookley Close, Sutton, SM2 6TT.

This exciting new development will be located off Homeland Drive and will replace the current Belmont Surgery in Station Approach, the branch surgery of the Benhill and Belmont Practice. The business plan for the new Belmont GP Centre was approved by Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) earlier in the year.

It is anticipated that the increased services run from this state of the art building will address the expected growth in population over the next few years and the need for an improved primary care network in the South Sutton region. The proposed development would be able to serve over 6,000 patients and have the potential to develop primary care services for local residents in the region in the future.

Dr Jeffrey Croucher, GP Partner based at the Belmont Surgery and one of the Clinical Team that will serve in the new facility said, “We are delighted that we will be able to progress plans for a new Belmont Medical Centre. This new surgery will be a great opportunity to develop healthcare in an area which is set to grow significantly over the next few years. We are grateful to our developers, Assura and Sutton CCG for making this idea a reality.”

Dr. Brendan Hudson, Chair of Sutton CCG and local GP, commented: “The CCG welcomes this new surgery development and looks forward to more new primary care premises coming on stream in the future.”

Simon Gould, Assura Development Manager, says: “The role of primary care is only set to grow as the NHS moves care closer to home and expands access to services, and that means GPs need buildings fit for that purpose. With the flexibility and space to bring new services into the building, this development will offer a huge opportunity to lead innovation for patients in future.”

Local patients and service users were central to developing plans, having been involved from the beginning. Marian Wingrove, Patient Participation Group lead at Belmont Surgery said, “It’s been a pleasure to be involved so closely with this. Patients have been put at the heart of plans, which means we will truly have a fit for purpose facility which will hopefully serve the local community for many years.”

Submitted by Claire Kelly