RESIDENTS of Addingham will discover this month which GP surgery has submitted the successful bid to run the new village medical centre.

Three possible tenants have submitted bids to the Bradford North Airedale Primary Care Trust (PCT) to run services at the new surgery, which will be built behind the Memorial Hall on Main Street.

A spokesman for the PCT said: "A decision has not been made about three new tenants. It is expected to be made at the beginning of January."

As soon as the decision is announced, parish councillor Alan Jerome has called for a meeting with the successful bidder to allow villagers to learn exactly how the centre will be run.

At a recent meeting, Coun Jerome said: "I just think we ought to be a bit more involved in it because it affects the whole village.

"We need to meet the head of the medical practice, which is selected to find out what they are going to do that is different - how are they going to manage it, and are they going to have permanent doctors in the village of Addingham?"

Coun Jerome said people might worry about whether they will be able to see the particular doctor they wanted to see when they made an appointment.

He said: "These are things we ought to ask and need to know. The village of Addingham wants to know how it will work. Will I be able to see the doctor I want to see?

"Thirty per cent of our residents are senior citizens and they are concerned about their health."

Parish council chairman Gordon Campbell said that he had been reassured by the head of the PCT that medical services in the village would continue and that moves to merge or abolish PCTs would not affect the medical centre plans. The cost of providing the building will be met by private loans and the surgery which runs the centre will lease it from the owner, a public/private partnership company set up by private investors and the PCT

Coun Campbell said: "There will be a re-organisation of the PCT that affects our area, but the medical centre will be funded before those changes take place."

Once the winning practice has been chosen, members of the practice will consult with the centre's architect to design the inside layout of the building to suit their purposes.

He said that there was a move in the NHS toward larger 'Super' practices overseeing the management of a number of doctors' surgeries.

"There is nothing to stop Richard Branson running medical services in the long-term," said Coun Campbell.

But this was a development parish councillor Penny Jerome did not view with eager anticipation. "You would think they would have learned that big is not the best," she said.

Councillor Campbell said: "Once we have established which practice has accepted the job we should invite them to explain the type of medical services they will be providing. We will bring them in and ask them to explain to us how they envisage it working."

The winning practice is expected to be announced around about the second week in January.