New Farrow Medical Centre Plans go Public
The doors at St Augustine’s church in Bradford were open to the public on 16th August to display the plans and building images for a proposed replacement surgery for the Farrow Medical Centre. The event was organised by the practice in conjunction with the church and the local community. Richard Drew from Apollo attended along with the architect , practice staff and doctors to answer questions and help explain the scheme from both a building and health service perspective.
Over 60 people attended offering extremely positive feedback and welcoming the redevelopment of the site adjacent to the surgery which has not been in use for over 10 years. The proposed new surgery was overwhelmingly considered to be a positive contribution to the local community and an important regeneration of a currently redundant site.
The level of support from the public was extremely encouraging to both the practice and Apollo as the patients of the practice were very keen that any new surgery was not developed too far from the existing surgery; this site is immediately next door!
Following the local consultation event Apollo has now lodged a planning application with Bradford Council for the replacement surgery. Apollo has been working with the practice for over 18 months and following an extensive site search, recently secured this plot of land from the council. The new building, when combined with part of the existing surgery”s car park, provides an excellent prominent site with frontage to the Otley Road, a major route into the centre of Bradford.
The new two storey building will be 800m2 with 28 car parking spaces and a pharmacy. The Farrow practice with 6 GP partners and 2 nurses will, subject to planning, be benefitting from a significant increase in building size from their existing 260m2 surgery. The new building will have 9 consulting rooms, a treatment room, counselling room and a large Health Education/multi purpose room next to the waiting area. On the first floor they will have their first ever dedicated meeting room and library which will be a valuable asset to the practice for their training services.
If planning is approved later this year, construction should commence in the Spring of next year with an opening in early 2014. The Farrow practice has been serving patients in this part of Bradford for over 50 years, expanding from a single founding partner, Dr Stefan Farrow, to the existing 6 GP strong partnership with over 5,500 patients.
