Morrisons surgery plans '˜ready in new year'

The plans for the medical facility at the Enterprise Hub in the Morrisons site in Wick were discussed at a meeting of Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group on Tuesday.

Laura Wade, primary care commissioning manager, said that a business case for the new surgery would be finalised early in the new year. She added that it would have to be a realistic deadline because funding made available by Arun District Council was time-limited.

This comes after months of slow progress on the plans.

She said: “There is certainly a commitment to seeing this plan go forward. We fully understand that it has been slow to progress and patients locally must be frustrated at the progress to date.”

One of the reasons given that plans were slow to progress was that Arun District Council is still negotiating with Morrisons about building the surgery.

An Arun District Council spokesperson said: “Discussions between the council, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Morrisons are continuing in a constructive manner.”

Tim Kimber, committee member and GP at The Park Surgery in Littlehampton, said that before it closed, Arun Medical Group was going to move from its East Street premises to the Morrisons site.

“When they handed in their contract, it put the CCG in a very difficult position. We went back to the drawing board about what was going to go in there.”

Two GP surgeries in Littlehampton are planning to run the medical facility.

Speaking after the meeting, Dr Kimber could not confirm which two it would be, adding it was commerically sensitive.

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