‘Carlisle heading for GP capacity crisis amid housing boom’
GP practices may be unable to meet demand in Carlisle due to house building at a rate “not seen since the 1960s” a city councillor has said.
City councillor James Bainbridge has warned that doctors in the west of Carlisle may be unable to meet demand for appointments if growth continues at such a rapid rate.
At Carlisle City Council on January 4, he will ask the leadership what progress has been made in partnership with the NHS to assess need and identify potential sites for GP practices.
The councillor for Sandsfield and Morton West ward will also ask what work has been done to market locations to potential GP practitioner businesses.
In his motion to the council, Cllr Bainbridge said: “The west of Carlisle is witnessing house building at a rate not seen since the 1960s. Several hundred properties have been built, several hundred more given permission and several thousand more are due to be built over the course of the Carlisle Local Plan.
“Increasing demand on GP Primary Care is a concern of many residents, and the concern is that demand will overtake capacity.
“GP investment into modern developments on Eastern Way and in the north of Carlisle are welcome – does the Portfolio Holder agree that the west of Carlisle is approaching the point where it needs similar GP infrastructure investment?”
Cllr Bainbridge told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The western area of the city, which includes Sandsfield and Morton West, has seen a large degree of development through the Carlisle Local Plan and Morton Masterplan.
“In my own ward permission for 200 homes has been granted by Carlisle City Council this year and two further sites near to Wigton Road and the Carlisle Northern Development Route will add 700 houses over the coming years.
“Add to this, the land at Morton, then in effect an area the size of Brampton, is being built in the area by the end of the decade.”
The Conservative councillor said plans need to be put in place now to meet the healthcare needs of those new residents. “Essential infrastructure such as Primary Care GPs doesn’t just rock up overnight, they take several years of negotiation, budgeting and planning at a local and national level.”
Cllr Bainbridge said that the city council’s work with NHS England and the North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group needs to start now.
He said: “There are at least two sites that I would like to suggest to the authorities.
“Similarly with the new Sands Centre accommodating physiotherapy services for the NHS, I would hope that the local NHS trust would give serious consideration as to whether they can utilise the local area for additional services that may have outgrown their present site.”
Cllr Bainbridge added: “I don’t want to see houses built with the local healthcare being considered as an afterthought. The time for this to be planned is now, not when the homes are being built.”