THIS is the new £6.75 million Worcester GP surgery that it is hoped will ease pressure on the county’s hospitals.

The new healthcare centre will be built in Northwick Road and will incorporate patients from two existing city surgery practices. Berwyn House Surgery, Shrubbery Avenue, and Thorneloe Lodge Surgery, Barbourne Road, which have 20,000 patients combined – have submitted plans and already bought an option on the proposed site for £150,000.

The site is the old home of Faithful workwear, near the junction of Eastbank Drive.

The new centre will feature new GP consultation rooms, a minor operations theatre, and an in-house pharmacy, offering face-to-face meetings with midwives, health visitors and district nurses. A 100-space car park will cater for patients.

GPs behind the project say the centre will offer a modern, disabled-friendly facility that will eventually take in-patient and minor surgery services away from Worcestershire Royal Hospital, freeing doctors there to focus on more serious procedures.

“It’s about doing more, getting all these services in one place, moving services from hospitals and into the city,” said Dr Charles Harris, of Berwyn House.

“Rather than going to hospital for minor operations, you could have them done at the surgery; procedures such as removing cysts for example.”

Dr Kelvin Laidlaw, of Thorneloe Lodge, added: “If we get funding it will allow us to offer patients a greater range of up-to-date medical services.”

The GPs leading the development have submitted proposals to NHS Worcestershire, the primary care trust which pays GPs to offer services, and has had “encouraging signs” about the project.

To fund the huge cost, the two surgeries will borrow the money from the banks against their own businesses.

Then once the development is built, it is hoped the primary care trust will step in to pay for the lease on the building.

“The hope is the PCT will pay the rent. The GPs get no profit,” said Dr Harris.

A competitive tender is out to find the pharmacy which will move into the new building and consultation is under way with the surgeries’ 20,000 patients.

The architects’ drawings are on display in the reception areas and on the websites of each practice. Public comment is welcomed.

Dr Harris said with the shortage of land in Barbourne it had taken three-and-a-half years to find a site for the development.

Simon Hairsnape, NHS Worcestershire’s delivery director, said the plans “represent an exciting opportunity for the practices to develop new premises” and better patient services.

“The practices are aware of our support in principle, but understand that NHS funding must depend on prioritisation and affordability. This will be determined in due course through the proper channels,” he said.

If planners give the go ahead, work could start on the site in late 2010 and be completed in 2012. No planning committee date has been set.