The finishing touches are being put in place at Netherfield‘s new state-of-the-art GP surgery before the much-anticipated opening on Monday (June 22).
The new multi-million pound facility will replace the current surgery on Forester Street and will provide greater capacity to meet an increasing demand for services now that several large housing estates are created in the area.
The surgery on Ashwell Street has 17 consultation and treatment rooms and a spacious patient waiting area with interactive digital screens to entertain children.
It also boasts a new health education area with the latest technology which could be used as a space for baby clinics and other group sessions in the future.
The surgery team will be now be busy over the weekend moving furniture, patient records and equipment across from the current surgery in time for Monday’s opening.
Once open, the new medical centre currently looks after 11,700 patients and hopes to welcome many more.
But despite the excitement, patients in the area will sadly have to wait a while longer yet before being able to get a glimpse inside the new building. Covid-19 restrictions mean only patients invited to the surgery following a phone or video consultation will be allowed access until the pandemic is over.
Those who are invited into the centre are being reminded they must wear their own face coverings at all times.
Caitriona Kennedy, GP and senior partner at the Trentside Medical Group, said she was excited to be moving into the ‘stunning’ new building.
She said: “This new surgery shows commitment to the Netherfield community and will bring footfall into the heart of the town.
“The patient experience will be immeasurably improved, and we look forward to serving our existing patients and the new communities developing in Teal Close and other local residential developments.”
It is estimated around 2,000 patients could join the practice from the new Rivendell estate over the coming years.
Dr Kennedy said she is now looking forward to being able to offer more services to patients at the new centre once covid-19 restrictions are lifted.
She said: “We hope to extend our services once the covid situation is under control. We are lucky enough to have some new health education space in the new centre which may host some new ways of working for our multidisciplinary team to work with patients.
“Sadly, the current covid situation means we will have to continue with telephone triage and appointments will remain mainly by telephone, video link and email.
“We hope it will not be long until we are seeing more of our friends face to face.”
I know that you have to have advertising to support your work, but it’s very distracting and in-your-face. I regret that I don’t often read your posts – and that of the Nottingham Post for the same reason.
As a Guardian subscriber I get their app free of ads. However, I sometimes click a link to a Guardian story on social media and these means that I do see their ad-supported stories. The ads there are more discreet.
I’ve never been persuaded to buy anything by anyone shouting at me!
Thanks for your comments, Mr Lawrence.
Sadly we are reliant on the income this advertising brings to pay for our servers and other web services required to keep Gedling Eye operational.
The only other way to pay the bills would be to put in a paywall but following a short trial the feedback we got was that readers want news for free – or they’ll get it elsewhere.
We review our ad placement policy and try, where possible, to make them less ‘in your face’ but this isn’t always something we can control due to Google in theory renting the space.
The Guardian policy of donations and discreet ads is one we admire but they also have the luxury of the backing from Scott Trust, who reinvest profits into journalism and are happy to cover any losses the publication makes. We received, like most hyperlocals in the UK, no support from the government during the recent pandemic while other multi-million-pound profit-making publishers were handed millions in NHS advertising ‘to help fund their journalism’.
I hope you’ll continue looking in from time to time to see if we have found the right balance between ads and content.
David Bratton (Editor)
How nice to see a comment responded to in such a comprehensive and thoughtful way! Well done Gedling Eye.
The new surgery looks fabulous. I hope there will be plenty of signage so that you don’t end up wandering around looking and feeling lost. Entering a large new building can be quite intimidating if people are watching and you don’t know what you’re doing.
So nice obvious signage and directions would be most welcome.
Hope the move goes well
Thanks for the kind comment, Julia. Thanks for reading and have a good weekend
‘Support Local’ covers a lot more areas than just shops. This is a local news page who keep us up to date with local events. I think it’s inevitable and totally acceptable that there will be adverts. I am quite happy to ignore these while supporting a local business, and not being made to pander to the ones out there who can afford to make it, only very slightly, less distracting.
I love the Gedling Eye page, you keep doing what you’re doing. It’s fab
Very kind comments, Jennie. Much appreciated. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.
Hey. Ignore that comment before as good job gedling eye. At least no pop ups and surveys like other news sites so a few ads for local news don’t bother me. Keep going lads
I researched to find out who a certain Doctor is at Trentside. As he is new to me, I needed to learn of his experiance. Once upon a time we had our Doctors for life and had great awareness. Not now!(
We have a right to know some background of whom we are putting Life In Hands. Allso :- today was Refused a telephone consultation by him.
After waiting a month for the appointment, being braced with notes..I found it rather “Perverse” to be refused after recent covid restrictions had surley made many more us more confidant, to be heard and not seen, at least initially!!.
Also, as a Commissioned artist and resident to Netherfield > Surely Food and Nutrition ought to be a reminder of how to boost our immunity. We cannot go swimming..skiing ..mountain climbing on crisp sandwiches
During the pandemic NOT ONE GOVERMENT OFFICIAL THOUGHT IT APPROPRIATE TO SEND NUTRIONAL FUIDL8NES WHICH BUILD IMMUNITY.
YOU MAY VRY WELL TAKE FOR GRANTED 5 A DAY.. YET I found basic information was governed by death rates…Insanity is whts driving parliament. I Diss Truss the pharmaceutical industry, because ingredients to medicines are all vitamin based..if not poison , like aluminium particles.