MS backs Hanmer Surgery’s call for larger premises and invites Health Board Chief Exec to visit

North Wales MS Mark Isherwood is calling on Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to support revised plans for the proposed redevelopment of Hanmer GP Surgery.

Following a socially distanced meeting with the Practice’s GP and Hanmer Surgery Patients Action Group last week to discuss their well-evidenced proposal to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board for the development of a new Primary Healthcare Centre to replace the Practice’s current unsuitable premises, Mr Isherwood has written to the Interim Chief Executive of the Health Board in support of the proposals.

Mr Isherwood said: “The surgery is extremely cramped, patient numbers are continuing to climb – now in excess of 2000, and the revised plans for the development of a new Primary Healthcare Centre to replace the current unsuitable and deteriorating premises would enable the Practice to deliver 21st Century services to a rural and isolated community, relieving pressure on other GP Practices and Health Board services, generating better health economics.

“The GP and Patients Action Group have been fighting for new premises for several years now and in 2018 a petition in support of the proposals was signed by two-thirds of the population of Hanmer.

“The surgery is trying to deliver in accordance with Welsh Government policy but needs revenue funding to do it.

“In my letter to the Interim Chief Executive of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), I invited him to visit the surgery so he can see first-hand the restricted conditions and understand why the GP and patients are so keen to move to a larger premises, where they could extend their services, preventing patients from having to travel much further afield to access them. A new premises could provide diabetes screening, Physio, Occupational Therapy, and much more. There is just no space for such services in the current building.

“I have learned this week that the Interim Chief Executive, Simon Dean, has now left BCUHB, and therefore hope that the Health Board’s Senior Executive Team takes up my offer of a visit and consequently supports these proposals. People living in rural settings should not be disadvantaged. They deserve a Health Board policy for rural practices that takes account of poor public transport and local population need, in order to deliver the same level of service and facilities available to those living elsewhere.”