On 10th December the executive of Bedford Borough Council approved a business case for a GP surgery in Wixams. This is a major step forward for the surgery project, leaving only three more hurdles for the surgery to go ahead:
- A full business case with an updated cost breakdown needs to be provided.
- The Integrated Care Board (ICB) need to formally commit to the project.
- An Agreement for Lease must be secured with GP providers.
This action, pushed forward by the Conservative led council, represents a significant leap forward in the delivery of the much needed facility and resolves a major blocker to progress. There had a been a funding gap for the delivery of the surgery for more than a decade, with little action being taken to resolve the shortfall throughout that time.
Residents Campaign for their Surgery
In April 2023 the former Wixams Residents Group (WRG) hosted a public residents’ meeting and invited Dave Hodgson, the Mayor of Bedford Borough at the time, as well as local councillors, to update the community on the latest news on the surgery. Mayor Hodgson highlighted that there were funding gaps for the delivery of the surgery and progress was slow. He, Cllr Graeme Coombes and others in attendance asked residents to contact the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) to lobby them to take action and to speed up the development of the surgery. The WRG also pushed this message on social media and in the Wixams Newsletter to ensure people made their feelings known.
Another meeting was scheduled for August 2023 and it was clear that residents had taken action. When the WRG reached out to invite the ICB to attend the meeting they accepted immediately. Felicity Cox, Chief Executive of the BLMK ICB, attended the August meeting as guest speaker. She gave an update on the Wixams surgery and then answered questions from the audience. However, some residents were left feeling that not enough was being done and that progress was too slow.
The Surgery Action Group was established which included some members of the WRG and other residents from Wixams. Over the next months they lobbied local politicians and worked with the newly elected MP Alistair Strathern (Lab), to push forward on the surgery.
The group carried out a survey in Wixams which identified that the lack of local healthcare facilities was putting strain on services in other communities. Around 59% of residents in Wixams were found to be registered with surgeries in Ampthill, 15% in Bedford and 7% in Wootton. NHS England data provided by the BBC showed that across the BLMK NHS area there were 2,799 patients for each fully qualified GP, the fifth-highest ratio in England.
A petition set up by the group received over 2000 signatures and was then submitted to the BLMK ICB, Bedford Borough Council (BBC) and Central Beds Council (CBC), demanding that those organisations, L&Q Estates (the master developers for Wixams at the time), Barratt Homes and other house developers collaborate and provide the funding to secure the surgery for the town.
Despite this, the BLMK ICB announced in December 2023 that they could not commit to the surgery by 2025.
In early 2024 Alistair Strathern set up a meeting between the action group members, councils and the ICB to discuss the surgery and to foster a more collaborative approach to resolving the blockers. This meeting was useful to ensure all stakeholders were aware of the issues at hand and to initiate conversations between certain organisations to speed up progress.
At the 2024 general election a new MP, Blake Stephenson (Con), was elected for Central Beds. After the election the very first meeting Blake held was with members of the Wixams Surgery Action Group, showing how important the issue was to him and how impactful the surgery awareness campaign had been. The group worked with Blake from that point on, and he kept them updated with his actions, including writing to the Minister for Health and speaking in parliament about the surgery.
£5.5 million Allocated for Wixams Surgery
After a lot of campaigning and coverage in the media, it was clear that the councils, developers and ICB needed to get the job done.
The administration at Bedford Borough Council is now led by Mayor Tom Wootton, who had pledged to try and get the surgery delivered within his term in office. The council were able to get the site for the surgery moved to entirely within Bedford Borough (the planned town centre is split between BBC and CBC), meaning they could take the lead on ensuring the delivery of the surgery building. They have been liaising with Urban&Civic, who are designing the facility and who are also in correspondence with the ICB about the development, to ensure it captures all the requirements for a facility of that scale.
In December the council approved a business case for the Wixams surgery:
Description of Decision
(1) That the business case associated with the scheme to build a new GP surgery for residents of Wixams, Wilstead and surrounding areas on Loverose Way in the new town centre on the Wixams Estate be approved.
(2) That the allocation of £5.5 million from the Council’s Primary Care Estate capital budget for the delivery of a new purpose-built GP practice in Wixams be approved and that it be agreed to proceed with the project when (i) a full business case with an updated cost breakdown is provided, (ii) the Integrated Care Board (ICB) formally commit to the project and (iii) an Agreement for Lease is secured with GP providers.
(3) That it be noted there is currently a detailed feasibility study being undertaken to provide an updated cost breakdown for the construction of a new GP surgery in Wixams, due to be completed in early 2026, and this will be subject to a further detailed report to the Executive.
Reason for Decision
The Executive has strategic oversight of the Bedford Borough primary care estate plans and budget. It is critical to residents of Wixams, Wilstead and the surrounding area that the development of a GP surgery in this area continues to make progress. The approval of the business case for a new Wixams GP Surgery, which details the approximate project costs, the role of the Council and funding sources, will enable Officers, subject to ICB governance approvals, to progress to the next stage of delivery.
It should be made clear that this funding will be borrowed and must be paid back by council taxpayers.
You can watch the meeting and find out more details about the decision on the council website.
What’s Next
The Wixams GP surgery will be within the town centre, which is still at the design stage. An application for the town centre will be submitted in 2026 by Urban&Civic, the new master developers for Wixams, and it will include the GP surgery. Funding for the running of the surgery is still to be resolved however and the latest news on this progress is below:
There have been a series of discussions between Bedford Borough Council (BBC), Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) and the ICB regarding options for accelerating delivery of a healthcare facility in Wixams. CBC have secured in principle significant sums of S106 funding for the Wixams South developments (Little Thickthorn and Great Thickthorn) which will help to deliver a facility, but this funding will not be available for a number of years. The ICB has limited access to capital funding; therefore, any acceleration of the project will require a partnership approach. Delivering a facility in Wixams remains a stated ambition for the ICB, with strong support from both Councils.
The Councils, ICB and the developer are continuing to work together to find a suitable solution.
Options being discussed include exploring any alternative funding sources, and the potential for one of the partners to “forward-fund” the S106 funding for several years, which could enable faster delivery of the permanent healthcare facility.
Over the summer, Urban & Civic (town centre developer) have been revising the planned layout of the town centre, including the proposed location for the health facility. They have now confirmed their preferred site for the surgery which can help to bring forward delivery and are planning the next stage of public engagement.
The next phase of work will involve Urban & Civic leading on revising the designs for the healthcare building and developing an up-to-date assessment of project costs. This can then inform the development of a business case based on the options being discussed between the ICB and Councils.
In the meantime, the ICB has taken action to improve primary care capacity in the surgeries on which Wixams residents currently rely.
Residents of Wixams are able to register with practices in Bedford, Ampthill, Wootton and Great Denham, and a variety of projects have taken place over the last two years to increase clinical capacity in the premises for some of these practices, for example for both practices based at Ampthill Health Centre. Other actions include recruiting more clinicians, growing the number of appointments available in primary care, introducing Cloud-Based Telephony to support patients’ experience of calling the practices, enabling patients to use online access methods to contact practices as well as using the telephone or walking in, and supporting more health services to be delivered in pharmacies by the implementation of the national Pharmacy First scheme.
The ICB and Council will continue to work closely with Urban & Civic and will provide updates to local stakeholders when there are significant developments. It remains the stated ambition of the ICB to establish a primary care facility in the centre of Wixams and all parties are keen to bring forward delivery of a healthcare facility in Wixams as soon as possible, funding pressures allowing.