Witney: GPs hit by PCT cash shortage

Plans for a bigger, better building for Witney's largest health centre have been scuppered because of a lack of NHS funding, reports the Oxford Mail.

GPs and staff at Windrush Health Centre - which has about 12,700 registered patients - were finally given hope of replacing the cramped, outdated surgery with a new building after getting the go-ahead from health managers to develop its site in Welch Way.

They organised for architects to assess the site and plans were drawn up - but have now had to postpone work after South West Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust said there was no money available to fund the surgery once it was built.

Senior practice partner Dr Paul Watson said: "Unfortunately, because of the dire financial circumstances in the health economy, no surgery developments are currently being supported, even though we are desperately short of space.

"We do not know when or whether we will be able to begin work on our new building."
The new centre would have had double the floor space of the existing surgery.

Dr Watson added: "The problem is that there's always buck-passing. Government sets new targets, but the funding doesn't match."

Witney's 15-bed Moorview Hospital, which treated elderly people with mental health problems, closed last month as part of the Mental Health NHS Trust's plans to reduce a projected £7.2m gap in its budget.

Ruth Atkins, spokesman for South West and South East Oxfordshire PCT, said before 2004, rent payments for GP surgeries were funded centrally at no cost to PCTs or local health authorities.

Ms Atkins said although Windrush Health Centre was a number one priority for South Oxfordshire PCT, this may not be the case when the PCTs merge in October.