No new doctors spaces created as developers build 100’s more homes in Penrith and Eden

No new doctors spaces created as developers build 100’s more homes in Penrith and Eden.

Since May 2019 Eden District council has approved an additional 830 houses for construction in developments with over 10 properties with over 350 of these located in Penrith.

During the same period since May 2019 and additional 817 houses have deem constructed with 539 in Penrith from applications approved before May 2019.

Eden Council has not required developers to support or fund the creation of any new GP cover in Penrith or Eden as part of development planning approval since May 2019 and has only required as part of planning S106 agreements a total of £1,334.553 towards primary and secondary education, £156,750 towards school transport and £245,515.65 towards highways and footpaths and £48,300 towards travel plans and public transport.

The information emerged at a recent Eden Council Planning committee meeting when Cllr Jonathan Davies questioned the chair of planning on the number of new homes approved by Eden council and if the council had required developers to contribute towards NHS and GP provisions as numbers of residents increased in the area with the new homes adding to patient numbers.

Penrith and the communities around the town are served currently by two GP surgeries located at Bridge lane in the town.

One of the two practices has provided data to the towns Evolve Penrith group that shows it has a total number of registered patients of 10,873 The practice currently has 2 GP partners with one providing 8 sessions and the other providing 6 sessions per week.

The practice also has 3 salaried GP's with one providing 4 session, one providing 7 sessions and the third providing 6 session per week.

A session equates to 4 hrs 20 mins and does NOT include all of the hours worked as extra by the GP’s to catch up on admin related activities.

Public data for both the Lakes Medical Practice and Birbeck Medical practice that both serve Penrith shows that in October 2022 both practice had an average of Same Day General Consultation appointments of approximately 200-300 patients seen face to face by a GP in the two practices in Penrith.

Within the same period in October GP’s at the two Penrith practice also having clinical triage telephone conversations with patients with an average of between 700 to 1500 a day. With the increase of housing already approved in Penrith and Eden patient number will see further increases adding to growing pressures faced by the Penrith GP’s.

The Evolve Penrith group have said in a statement issued this week “Evolve Penrith believe that planning approval for developments of 10 or more properties in a single development should require contributions to community infrastructure including GP and NHS capacity in the local community and should form part of any local development plan for the area to ensure that our GP’s and NHS are supported to support our communities.”

One of the two Penrith Surgeries this week issued information via social media saying “Many of you will be aware of the huge pressure we are currently under - not only do we have the usual increase in demand due to 'Winter Pressure' but the surge in poorly children has had a huge impact over the last week. All teams are working as hard as they can to manage this - dealing with this pressure is not easy.

We know that when we close triage assessment early that this can be frustrating for patients and this decision is not taken lightly. We are aware of the knock-on impact on reception once this happens; having to tell patients we have no appointments or assessment slots available, as well as the worry for patients that they can't be assessed that day.

Closing triage assessment early is done as we need to limit the number of patients that are expecting an assessment and be honest with them so they know they may need to go elsewhere for advice or treatment and although this isn't always as convenient as attending the surgery or speaking with one of our clinicians on the phone, we need to prioritise clinical care over convenience.”

In the statement by Evolve Penrith they added “Evolve Penrith firmly believes that the blame for the pressure lays with Eden Council for failure to account for local infrastructure and resources in planning approvals with any requirements for funding and provision for GP and NHS facilities and resources.

As more and more houses are built in the area with no wider plan for Penrith and Eden to provide the required infrastructure or medical provisions for the occupants of the houses approved.”

As part of its investigation into the local pressures caused by the increase of housing developments with no wider infrastructure planning by Eden Council as the local Planning authority currently for Penrith and most of Eden.

Evolve Penrith have said they are calling for an urgent review of pressures and needs on local infrastructure and resources in Penrith and Eden and a plan to deliver the identified needs that are lacking as part of a Penrith and Eden plan that sets out development alongside community building and infrastructure development.