City centre GP surgeries plan to move into former Victorian bank building

The allocation of £37 million in government funding has given NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board a “once in a generation opportunity to improve healthcare for people in Sheffield”, says a report to Sheffield City Council’s health scrutiny sub-committee, which meets this week (Thursday, September 7).

Proposals for a new GP centre in Sheffield city centre in the old Royal Bank of Scotland building on Church Street are now set to replace the PCS City and PCS Mulberry GP practices. They are run by Primary Care Sheffield (PCS), the local GP federation.

Both surgeries are on Mulberry Street, a three-minute walk from Church Street. They serve 6,573 patients in total.

PCS Mulberry is a specialist service for patients living in Sheffield who are seeking asylum in the UK, homeless or living in a hostel or temporary accommodation.

The idea to include a new city centre site. The original plans had been delayed because of problems finding somewhere suitable. A 12-week consultation with patients is set to end on October 29, the report says, and the Sheffield Primary Care Committee of the NHS will consider the results on January 10.

There was speculation that the grade II-listed building, which dates back to 1866/67, could become a hotel when it went up for sale at £575,000 last December. The bank, opposite Sheffield Cathedral, closed two months earlier because the company said demand had fallen too much due to the growth of online banking to justify keeping it open.

Following public consultations with patients, GP group Foundry will move Burngreave Surgery and Sheffield Medical Centre to a new centre on Spital Street, Burngreave. The group will also relocate Page Hall Medical Centre and Upwell Street Surgery to a new centre on Rushby Street, Fir Vale.

The SAPA group of GPs are relocating the Health Care Surgery, Buchanan Road Surgery and Margetson Surgery to a new centre on Wordsworth Avenue, Parson Cross.

Another health centre proposed by SAPA was not approved. This means that the proposed health centre at Concord Leisure Centre will not be built and Firth Park Surgery and Shiregreen Medical Centre will remain in their existing premises.

Only 33 per cent of patients thought the Concord plan was positive and 66 per cent of patients said they would relocate there. In comparison, 55 per cent of patients backed the other SAPA plan and 80 per cent would move there.

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Building work for the three centres is scheduled to run from January 2024 to March 2025 and the transition phase to the new buildings will take place from January to March 2025.

Roadshows about the plans will take place at the following times:

• Rushby Street – September 6, 6-8pm, at Fir Vale Community Hub;
• Spital Street – September 7, 2-4pm, at Burngreave Library;
• Wordsworth Avenue – September 13, 4-6pm, at The Learning Zone (Parson Cross Library).

The report says: “Conversations were held with community organisations, Disability Sheffield, Fir Vale Community Hub and SOAR, to understand different ethnic and cultural perspectives within the design, especially for the two Foundry sites which serve very diverse communities.” SOAR is a north Sheffield health and wellbeing organisaton.