Plans for a new Westwood Health Campus will be on show at the Royal Harbour Academy (upper site) tomorrow (February 1).
Developer Quinn Estates and The Grange medical practice are hosting the event for people to see the plans and give their views.
Quinn Estates wants to create a primary medical care facility, a 70 flat extra care/assisted living building, an 8o-bed care home, two retirement blocks consisting of 90 self contained flats and a children’s nursery at land off New Haine Road at the rear of Westwood Sainsburys.
The medical care facility has been earmarked as the new premises for The Grange GP surgery which is currently based at the Montefiore Medical Centre in Dumpton Park Drive. East Cliff GPs, also at the Montefiore centre, will not be moving out of the premises and are hoping to expand the services they provide at the site.
Planning documents for the Westwood Health Campus development say: “The vision for the health campus is to combine a range of much-needed health and care uses to complement the wider, emerging with community at New Haine Road and the surrounding area.
“This exemplar scheme presents a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity for the district.”
In a letter to patients The Grange says: “The Grange Practice is planning to move from its existing site in a shared medical centre on Dumpton Park Drive to a new, larger building off New Haine Road near Westwood Cross.
“The current surgery building is no longer big enough to serve our patients’ needs and does not have the space to be able to provide the clinical or administrative functions required to care for an increasing population.
“The proposal is to relocate to the new site from which it will provide a comprehensive range of primary care-based services in purpose built new premises.”
In planning documents for the scheme it states: “The Ramsgate Primary Care Network (PCN), along with the neighbouring Margate PCN and CARE Kent PCN are all operating above the recognised benchmark GP to patient ratio.
“This could be expected to increase significantly in the coming years as over 5,000 new homes are allocated or approved within a 20-minute walk of the Site. The proposals would accommodate an increased workforce and registered patients over the coming years for the Grange Practice, which will bring numerous benefits including expanding and integrating services.
“The primary care facility has been progressed in full consultation with NHS Kent and Medway, and the proposed schedule of accommodation, proposed patient list size, and strategic need for the primary care facility are fully supported.”
The Grange is currently asking for views on the proposal.
Plans, an FAQ and the questionnaire can be accessed at: https://www.thegrangepracticeramsgate.nhs.uk/2024/01/11/the-grange-practice-update-on-proposed-new-surgery/
Documents say all Grange staff would move to the new facility and it is hoped the workforce could expand in the two years after the move to provide 10 additional specialist staff, adding: “The Grange Practice is planning to increase its list size by 50% over the next 5 to 6 years so this will also increase the PCN workforce budget further.”
The proposal is understood to mean that both surgeries will have space at the Ramsgate and Westwood premises to expand services.
If planning approval is granted the new surgery will be built at the start of the development, without waiting for a “tipping point” of other elements of the development on the adjoining site to be completed.
Proposals for a GP surgery go back to at least 2017 when proposals were made to replace Thanet’s 17 GP surgeries with 4 extended practices, serving a catchment of between 30-60,000 patients, and a medical hub.
The public drop-in event runs at the RHA upper site, February 1, 4pm to 7pm.
A decsion on the planning application has not yet been made. Documents can be viewed on Thanet council’s planning page, reference OL/TH/23/1606.
