Health Village GP's not expected to move to new Health Hub

it is not expected that any of the GP Practices presently located in Newry Health Village will be relocating entirely to the new proposed health hub on the grounds of the former Abbey Christian Brother's school.

This was revealed in a reply to a letter from Newry, Mourne and Down Council CEO, Marie Ward to the Health and Social Care Board which stated that although expressing an interest in moving, the three had been unable to extract themselves from ownership arrangements at the Health Village. The Council CEO had asked for an update on the projects progress and whether contracts were in place.

In the letter Sharon Gallagher, HSC Chief Executive said "As the 3 practices who had expressed an interest in relocation to the hub (at Appointment Business Case stage) have been unable to extract themselves from the ownership arrangements within the Newry Health Village, it is not expected that any of the GP Practices currently located within the Newry Health Village will relocate to the hub in their entirety."

The letter explains the £40M Newry Community Treatment and Care Centre (CTCC) presently has been given Department of Health approval to develop a Full Business Case which subject to approval, could see a contract awarded in Spring 2022 with a two year building programme expected to complete in Summer 2024 with potential opening in early 2025.

With the practices unlikely to entirely relocate Gallagher says the Hub should help to alleviate ever increasing pressures at the Daisy Hill Hospital site creating an opportunity to relocate services from hospital to the community and improve accessibility to services for patients while delivering improved integration of a range of Trust led services.

Explaining the vision for the new Hub Gallagher said "The vision for Newry would be for the CTCC to act as a hub collectively in a managed clinical network, where access to out of hospital services is provided from the Hub which will have linkages with peripheral GP Practices, to support the future model of primary and community care service delivery." The HSC Chief Executive added "This is similar to the successful arrangement that exists within the Banbridge Health and Care Centre, whereby although there are no GP Practices physically located withing the Trust hub facility itself, the GP patients are benefitting from direct referral to plain x-ray and ultrasound within the hub, alleviating pressures on the Trust's acute sites and enabling patient care closer to home."

The HSC letter is just one of several matters to be discussed at a Special Meeting of Newry, Mourne and Down Council next Monday 25 October, with representatives from the Southern Trust and South Eastern Trust in attendance.