Bicester GP hub plan scrapped over delays and rising costs

The proposed hub would have catered for 50,000 patients, the GPs said

A plan to move three GP surgeries to a purpose-built hub has been scrapped.

Costs have "risen significantly" since the Bicester scheme was approved in principle in 2020, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board said.

The GP surgeries said it meant previously-agreed NHS funding was now inadequate.

They said there was a "pressing need" for more space to cope with the town's expected large population growth.

The surgeries would have moved to the new community at Graven Hill

The proposed hub - on the new Graven Hill community site outside Bicester - would have incorporated Alchester Medical Group's two surgeries in the town as well as the Montgomery-House practice.

The plan suffered from unexpected planning delays, the war in Ukraine and the impact on the cost of construction materials, the GPs said.

It had been impossible to agree funding with the NHS integrated care board, they added.

In a statement, the board said: "Planning delays and the Covid pandemic have delayed the build, while the costs of the new premises have risen significantly."

Roy Lilley, a health commentator and former NHS trust boss, said joint GP hubs were a sensible way to save overhead costs and divert patients from hospital by offering extra services such as scans.

He said rising prices had also thrown doubt on the government's plan to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 "because of the way building costs and overhead costs have gone up".