Bedfordshire MP says infrastructure needs to be built before homes

Permission for a new healthcare facility to provide a "fit for purpose" service in an area with a growing population has been granted. What will the plans mean for the local area?

Dr Ankur Khandelwal is based at Linden Road Surgery in Bedford, which will be paired with the new facility in Biddenham, Bedfordshire.

He said the population in the area had "increased at a rapid rate" while three GP surgeries in the surrounding area had closed.

Over the last few years, the number of patients registered at the surgery has increased from just under 4,000 to more than 6,000.

The Linden Road Surgery, based in a converted house, was not accessible to many of its patients due to some rooms being on the first floor with no lift, he said.

"It's hoped the building should be done by January 2024, which is wonderful news.

"The facility will be fantastic... there will be more consulting rooms with appropriate amount of space, it will be fit for purpose, it will look like a healthcare building and there will be various teams based there," he said.

A well-functioning surgery needs more than just GP access, according to Dr Khandelwal.

"It's not just about doctors and nurses, we need mental health clinicians, physiotherapists, pharmacists, educational facilities for trainees."

Richard Fuller, the Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire, raised the issue of the lack of healthcare facilities in the area in parliament earlier this month.

He says his constituency has seen large amounts of house-building but the infrastructure promised alongside those developments is not being built until long after the homes are completed.

Regarding the site in Biddenham, he says: "The land was promised years ago, all the houses have been built and yet the building of the new practice has not begun.

"Why has it taken so long a promised surgery to be built?

"It's good it's going to be built but it points to the issue of large population increases and the facilities aren't keeping up.

"There's been hundreds of houses built in this area and we've been discussing having a surgery for nearly a decade."

Mr Fuller is hoping an "infrastructure first" rule will be implemented, meaning "much-needed" healthcare and education facilities are built before the new homes.

He says the approach will ease pressure on existing surgeries.

A spokeswoman for the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Health and Care Partnership said there were delays to the large-scale project due to Covid and it is working closely with local authorities to meet "the health needs associated with housing growth".

"Construction is now due to commence in the autumn, which will enable the new facility to be delivered prior to the completion of the development of the extra housing in the Biddenham area," she added.

Peter Chase, vice chairman of Biddenham Parish Council, says it is "incredibly frustrating" to have to wait for infrastructure to be built after housing.

"The notion of a new surgery has been around since about 2002," he says.

"The amount of housing is completely outstripping even new infrastructure.

"I think we've all heard about wait times people are having and whilst that situation is national, it's not great locally.

"When you have as many people as you have coming into this area and practically no change in the number of available GPs, you can imagine the situation's going from bad to worse."

A spokesman for Bedford Borough Council said while there was an application received in 2002 for a mixed development including housing and a medical centre, the development did not commence until 2014.

An application for a care home and GP surgery was approved earlier this month, it added.

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