Alderley Edge Parish Council formally accepted the handover of the new Alderley Edge Medical Centre from Jones Contracts on Thursday, 24th March, at 12.30pm. This is the final step in a project initiated by the previous Parish Council and the doctors several years ago.
Chairman of the Parish Council, Geoff Hall expressed relief that the project had been completed ahead of the crucial deadline of 31st March.
He said "The British Medical Association recently surveyed 200 GPs who were building new surgeries. Over 80% of them expected to run past the NHS England completion deadline, which meant they risked losing their funding altogether. This could easily have happened to us.
"It has meant a lot of hard work for all involved, and everyone has pulled together to make it happen. We couldn't have done it without the professional support of individuals from many different organisations - Jones Contracts, in particular."
Dr Thompson from the Alderley Edge Medical Practice agreed. "This has been a long time coming and we thank everyone involved for helping to bring it about. We are very excited to have this 21st century facility to replace our current premises in George Street and we hope our patients will be equally impressed."
Now that the new building is complete the doctors will be preparing for the move to the new surgery over the weekend of 8th-10th April. Final preparations include testing all the systems and training users.
The practice will move from George Street on Friday 8th April. As the computer system will be closed down over the move, there will be only emergency appointments at that time. There will be no routine prescriptions, and the practice will be unable to book any routine appointments. There will be no access to medical records or test results, so only genuine emergencies can be dealt with.
On Monday 11th April the new surgery will open for urgent appointments only, but will be fully up and running from Tuesday 12th April.
To mark the opening of the new Medical Centre the Parish Council and the doctors plan to hold an opening ceremony at the new building on Monday 11th at 12pm. "It will be a short event,"
Dr Thompson noted, " "It will be a short event because the doctors have to get back to work, but we hope that as many people as possible who have contributed to the success of this project will be there, as well as our patients, to celebrate the opening of the new surgery."
Photo (L to R) : Steve Barnett (Jones Contracts), Clive Sellers (Arcus), David Quirk (Jones), Jonathan Parker (Jones), Clive Anderton (MHA), Mike Carey (Rebloom), Dr Edwin Thompson (Alderley Edge Medical Practice), Craig Browne (Ward Councillor), Anne Ross (Alderley Edge Parish Council) and Geoff Hall (AEPC).
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However: what is it with public institutions and the hideous cheap looking colours though? Just saying!!!