PLANS are being drawn up for a new £3.3million primary health care centre to serve 11,500 patients.

Health bosses are anxious to update frontline services for Barnoldswick and are looking to establish a centre which would offer GP surgeries and community NHS services.

If the scheme is adopted then it would complete a chain of primary health centres in Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Rawtenstall and Bacup.

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Dozens of new homes are being constructed in and around the West Craven town and the announcement has been welcomed by councillors.

East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), has identified £50,000 towards a feasibility study for the project and placed a £3.3m price tag on the finished venue.

Seven doctors are based at the town’s present health centre, in Park Road, under senior GP Robert Kenny.

The practice was first opened in 1915 but has now been deemed ‘not fit for purpose’.

Lisa Cunliffe, the CCG’s primary care development manager, said: “The existing GP practice currently has a list size of 11,500 and is located across a number of converted terraced houses and there are issues with both accessibility and capacity.

“With the potential for new houses in the town, the capacity pressure will only increase.

“Its current premises do not allow the practice to meet current and future needs of its population base.”

Primary care services would be housed within the new complex, CCG board members have been told, enabling the GP practice to ‘manage the care of patients in the community’ more effectively in future.

The initial grant would cover legal costs and site selection, with no firm location yet identified for the prospective centre.

Once any new centre was opened the existing Park Road surgery could be placed on the market.

Cllr Jennifer Purcell, who represents Craven ward for the Conservatives, said: “It is high time that we had something like this, given the amount of new people who are coming into Barnoldswick now.

“There has been so much housebuilding but we have had no support in terms of infrastructure.

“We shouldn’t have to travel to Nelson or Colne for our health services and this will be vital, given our elderly population and the number of young families.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Ken Hartley said: “This is something which myself and my colleagues on the borough and town councils have been working on for several years.

“The problem with the current Park Road surgery, as a medical practice, is that is it located in two converted Victorian terraced houses and it’s really like a rabbit warren inside because of the amount of things which go on there. It has operated at capacity for the past 12 months.”

He said colleagues had campaigned when a wound clinic, based at the centre, was going to be phased out last year.

Patients had faced the prospect of travelling to Colne Health Centre, for dressings to be replaced, before extensive lobbying saw an alternative service offered at the Rainhall Centre.

The plans are part of the CCG’s forward view proposals and a planning application would follow once funding was secured from NHS England or internal financing.

A spokesman for Barnoldswick Medical Centre said: “The partners are in discussion with East Lancashire CCG regarding the proposal for a new health centre in Barnoldswick.

“These discussions are at a very early stage and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”