PLANS for a new 6,000-patient health centre in central Wakefield have met with concerns that the cash would be better spent on existing GP services.
And unions opposed to private involvement in the NHS are worries that profit-led companies could bid against GPs to run it.
Wakefield and District Primary Care Trust (PCT) is planning a new health centre, which will be open 12 hours a day, seven d
ays a week in the heart of the city.
Expected to be open in 2009, it will offer normal GP services, as well as additional services like cervical screening, vaccination, and possible dental treatment.
And on top of an expected 6,000 registered patients, it will be open to unregistered people and anyone who finds it more convenient than their own doctor.
The PCT said it wanted to offer more choice to patients and was committed to investing to improve services.
But a spokesperson for the British Medical Association (BMA) said: "Why not use the money to help GPs improve their own premises and the services they offer instead of building new clinics for which there is no proven need?"
The PCT confirmed the tendering process was open to NHS and non-NHS providers.
A site has not been selected, but a location is sought in central Wakefield.
Adrian O'Malley, chairman of the Wakefield and Pontefract Hospitals Unison branch, said: "We are opposed to private companies building and operating facilities within the NHS because they take profits that could be spent on patient care."
Paul Cusworth, the PCT's head of primary care and practice-based commissioning, said: "The development of a new GP-led health centre in the Wakefield district is in line with national NHS requirements but also fits with what patients told us at our recent series of listening events held across the district."
The full article contains 312 words and appears in Wakefield Express City newspaper.
