Marston Green GP surgery sets out plans for a bigger premises

A MARSTON Green doctor's surgery is attempting to gather residents' support for the creation of a purpose-built medical centre.
The Chelmsley Lane practice has argued that the current facilities are being placed under increasing pressure by the village's growing population and believes that a move to a new, larger premises would benefit patients.
A petition has been made available at the surgery's reception, with the doctors hoping that local people will endorse the idea.
Explaining the proposals, a notice from the surgery said: "As you know, our village has expanded over the years and further housing is already in the pipeline.
"Together with the closure of other GP practices (which has had quite an impact on the number of additional patients we have registered with us), our small surgery has become very overstretched and the number of appointments we are able to offer is limited by lack of rooms.
"As a consequence, the practice has been searching for a new site for some time and we now have an opportunity to develop a new medical centre within the village."
It is proposed that the new centre would be based at the village end of Coleshill Road, where more rooms and increased car parking spaces would be available.
The partners are also keen to bring more medical professionals, including a dentist, pharmacist, optician and chiropodist, under the same roof.
"One-stop" facilities are becoming increasingly popular nationwide as GPs seek to adapt to the challenges posed by a growing number of older patients and a shortage of practitioners.
Concerns were raised last month that some doctors were seeing as many as 60 patients a day.