A Kent-based organisation will run a planned new health centre offering extra GP services to patients from across Shropshire.

Malling Health has emerged as the preferred bidder for the GP-led centre which Shropshire County Primary Care Trust aims to open in Shrewsbury this summer.

The trust says it is currently “concluding formalities” that will lead to the award of the health centre contract.

This follows an open tender process which allowed interested parties to make a bid, and will result in a wider range of services and better access to GP care for Shropshire patients.

But a county health campaigner has called on the trust to delay signing a contract until the “risks” have been properly evaluated.

Dr Charles West, who has been a GP in Shropshire and is the Lib Dem’s parliamentary candidate for Shrewsbury and Atcham, says the project is a waste of money.

Existing

The Shrewsbury centre will be open seven days a week, from 8am to 8pm, and the trust claims it will not replace any existing GP services in the county.

It is hoped that the new centre will be ready by July.

“Providing excellent health care services for the people of Shropshire is the main objective of the new centre,” said Jo Chambers, trust chief executive.

She said the project “not only provides extra primary care facilities for patients, it also gives people more choice in when and where they are able to see a GP”.

The selection process to choose which organisation will run the centre looked at several specific criteria, including the quality of the services that they are able to provide, their plans for staff development and training, and their information management and technology capabilities.

Malling Health is a “family” of seven partners, including six GPs and one practice manager, which already has experience across the country of providing similar services to those required by the trust.

Dr Tom Reichhelm, medical director, said they were thrilled to have been chosen for the Shropshire centre.

But Dr West said “Shrewsbury does not need a new big clinic. What Shrewsbury needs is beds.”

By Dave Morris