New Cornmarket Street health centre is ready to open

Since 2019 Jesus College has been building the Cheng Yu Tung development, providing new student facilities and retail units.

The former Northgate House has been demolished, with the new structure built in its place.

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As part of the plans, a new medical practice is moving to the city centre.

Some residents have expressed concern about the new centre's location, questioning its suitability in terms of access for patients who have mobility issues.

King Edward Street Medical Practice, 27 Beaumont Street Medical Practice and 28 Beaumont Street GP Practice is to move to its new location off Cornmarket by the end of the month.

The three GP practices will be relocating to the new Northgate Health Centre, in Market Street, built by Jesus College as part of its Cheng Yu Tung Building development.

The new health centre is a 10-minute walk from the current practices and will serve a patient population of about 20,000, including students, living in or close to Oxford city centre.

The three GP practices will start to deliver primary care services from the new health centre on Monday. 

They will remain as independent GP surgeries but will share some facilities and space.

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The three practices will close at their current locations on Friday to complete the move to the new health centre over the weekend

 Features of the new health centre include:

• Patient care in modern purpose-built premises led by clinical teams of GPs, practice nurses, health care assistants and community midwives.
• Provision of 27 consulting and treatment rooms and a shared minor operations room and shared administrative rooms on the first floor.
• Patient services provided on one level in the basement (including a shared reception and waiting areas) accessible via two lifts and a wide staircase from the entrance on Market Street.
• A ‘Changing Places’ toilet for people with disabilities with shower and a changing room.

Dr MaryKate Kirkaldy, a GP partner at King Edward Street Medical Practice, said: “We are all delighted about moving into a modern and spacious health centre in the heart of Oxford. The new purpose-built premises will allow each practice to increase the range of services we currently provide with more specialist health care in the future.

"We thank all our patients, Jesus College and Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group for their help and support in making this move a reality. We will continue to work closely together to ensure the continuing success of the health centre.”

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Dr David McCartney, a GP partner at 27 Beaumont Street Medical Practice, said: “The move into the new health centre has been a long journey as we searched for better, bigger and modern premises over the past decade. This endeavour has been very worthwhile and we are ready and eager to start a new chapter in the delivery of effective and high-quality patient care.

Dr McCartney said: “While we will work initially as independent practices and share some facilities, the wider plan is to develop closer working ties with each other through our local Primary Care Network.

"This is in line with the transformation of the wider NHS and will enable us to share even more clinical resources to serve a bigger patient population in Oxford city in the future. The aim is to integrate with other local health and care providers to create a hub of community healthcare.”

Dr Matthew Easdale, a GP partner at 28 Beaumont Street GP practice said: “The three practices will be sad to be leaving their current premises that for years have delivered care to thousands of patients, but our existing surgery buildings are not suited to the future of healthcare. Over the past ten years it became abundantly clear we needed to find better and more modern facilities, and thankfully we have achieved this goal.”

Dr Easdale said: “We are proud of the new health centre which includes provision for people with disabilities, and there is good access to the premises. The overall design brings in natural light with easy views through the premises to create an airy comfortable feel for people working in the centre.”

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Christopher Doogue, a patient at 27 Beaumont Street Medical Practice, said: "I am so pleased to hear about the new GP premises. We will still be located in the centre of Oxford which is very handy because the support I have had from my GP and the team at 27 Beaumont Street practice is second to none.”

Margaret Mukherjee, a patient at King Edward Street Medical Practice, said: “We are really looking forward to the new building opening. It will be so much easier for older patients to access.”

Julie Dandridge, Head of Primary Care Services at Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “This new health centre demonstrates our commitment to delivering high quality patient services in Oxfordshire. We have worked closely with the three GP practices and Jesus College to ensure the development of much needed new primary care services in the city.

"The health centre will benefit patients and their carers who will enjoy better access to services. For our dedicated GPs, health professionals and practice staff they will all be working in modern, state of the art premises providing more space and better facilities than before.”

David Stevenson, leading the project for Jesus College, said: “We are looking forward to the opening of the Northgate Health Centre which will provide vastly improved healthcare services for patients and the local Oxford community.

"We are delighted to have been able to work with the three NHS practices and Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group to develop a truly exceptional design that focuses solely on patient care and better access.”

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF