Health centre funding in jeopardy

The future of the greatly-welcomed project to replace the ruins of the fire-damaged Sea Road hotel with a new block to accommodate two town centre GP practices could be affected by a change in the Government funding system.

Last Thursday's meeting of the board of Bexhill and Rother Primary Care Trust was warned by chief executive Rick Stern and chairman John Barnes that funding for new surgeries is being cut drastically.

The trust has four schemes in the pipeline. The meeting accepted that priority must be given to schemes for Sidley and Rye, which are more advanced.

Meanwhile, the trust will step up the pressure for more cash to be made available. Enlarged premises offering a greater range of services are a key part of NHS reforms aimed at replacing the health service's out-dated "sticking plaster" reactive role with a new preventative approach.

The chief executive said NHS funding for new services was "much, much lower" than the trust had previously been led to believe.

"We have certainly been involved in lobbying at a national level and at the end of the day I think it will come down to some difficult decisions."

A meeting preceding the board's gathering had come to the view that Sidley and Rye must be given top priority.

The chief executive warned that if lobbying did not produce a change in the Government's stance the policy change could have a significant effect on the cost of future investment in new surgeries.

He pledged to put a further report before the board's July meeting.

The chairman said: "We are told that in order to deliver enhanced services, the premises need to be a lot larger than they have been in the past. We are also expected to put in larger capacity to allow for growth in the future - plus the new development in the Sidley area.

"So there is a double-whammy. Cost-rental values have practically doubled and the space requirement has trebled.

"Put these together and you are faced with very large sums- something like six to seven times as much."

The chairman told the board that 675,000 had been allocated for this year and 2.25m for next year. But this had to be shared between FIFTEEN PCTs in Sussex and Surrey.

The GP development programme had been stalled since last September because not enough information was coming from Government. If the PCT didn't act quickly, it could lose its funding for 2005-2006 - let alone 2004-2005, he said.

The PCT had taken up the issue with the health service federation and had received a "dusty answer" though the NHS Alliance thought the issue so serious that it continued to press for a response.

Asked later about the Sea Road scheme, the chief executive said: "We want to do it. We want to make it work.

"But at the moment there is an element of risk about how we can fund it.

"This PCT has three per cent of the population of Sussex and Surrey and we could use a THIRD of the budget for that area."

The multi-million pound scheme for the Grand Hotel site would include a one-stop clinic and accommodation for 13 GPs on the ground floor with car parking beneath and luxury flats above. It would be built with private enterprise money and leased to the Primary Care Trust. It is the cost of this lease and the degree of Government funding to meet that cost which has now put the scheme in jeopardy.