Nearly 30 GP surgeries in Bradford are "not fit for purpose", according to a new study.

The survey by Pulse, the newspaper for GPs, found 27 premises in the district were deemed unsuitable.

A total of 1,092 premises across the UK were below minimum standards, figures from 175 primary care trusts and local health boards showed.

London was the worst, with Birmingham, Bristol and Bradford also badly affected, putting key Government policies such as moving services into the community in jeopardy, according to the article.

Editor of Pulse, Jo Haynes, said: "GPs want to take on more work from hospitals and to provide more services for patients from their surgeries.

"But they are being prevented from doing so because the Government refuses to invest the comparatively small amount of money to enable primary care organisations to fund new premises."

Dr Peter Holden, negotiator for premises on the British Medical Association's GP's Committee, said the Department of Health was spending "peanuts on premises".

"This means GPs cannot take on the broader role that is possible in primary care, delivering services at a fraction of the cost of secondary care," he said.

But Health Minister Lord Warner, who in July opened a flagship £8 million health centre in Manningham called Westbourne Green Community Health Care Centre, said premises were getting better as £1billion was being invested in GP surgeries and health centres under the Local Improvement Finance Trust (Lift) programme, a public-private partnership.

The Bradford district is delivering a £60m development programme to replace ageing and overcrowded GP surgeries through the Bradford and Airedale Care Partnerships Ltd, the district's Lift.

The district is one of the first in the country to use the new funding investment in healthcare premises.

A £14 million first wave of schemes includes premises in Manningham and Haworth and a second wave will see new developments in Barkerend, Thornbury and Undercliffe.

A spokesman for Bradford and Airedale Primary Care Trusts said: "We are currently in the middle of updating a survey on the condition of all our premises across the district and this will be completed by the end of October.

"The result of this will be used to draw up an estate strategy for the new PCT. We have formed a Bradford Lift company that has delivered three major schemes.

"The plan is to move all GP surgeries that are run from converted houses in Bradford City area into purpose-built premises. Our aim is to provide the best primary care premises possible within the resources we have available, which meet the needs of local communities."

e-mail: claire.lomax@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

Building allows practice to expand

With more GPs than consulting rooms, doctors and managers at Bowling Hall Medical Practice in Rooley Lane were very constrained in the services they could offer its 6,000 patients.

In 2000 the practice began to hunt for new premises and a site nearby was secured and under a PFI scheme a modern health centre was created by a developer and then leased to the practice.

Business manager Chris Brennan said: "The old building was only ten to 15 years old but in terms of how the NHS is moving forward, with three practices working in one building we could only offer standard services."

The extra space has been vital in allowing the practice to develop clinics in the community for everything from diabetes and heart disease to asthma, in line with the Government's plan to move more services from secondary to primary care.

A recent development is Team Talk, a drop-in clinic tailored to teenagers with advice on everything from teenage pregnancy and sexual health to alcohol consumption.

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