More than 200,000 extra GP appointments are set to be created in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, thanks to new Government funding to create extra patient space at GP practices.
Locally, 22 practices from across the area have been provisionally allocated a share of £2.1m to carry out work to reconfigure their existing buildings.
Currently, some GP practices are unable to see more patients because they don’t have enough room or the right facilities to accommodate them. From creating new consultation and treatment rooms to making better use of existing space, the schemes will help more patients to be seen faster.
All 22 bids for GP Practice building refurbishment funding in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire have been supported in principle, with formal approval by the end of June 2025.
This funding stream can only be used to improve current GP practice buildings, not new-build schemes.
Work set to start in coming months
Work at the approved GP practices is set to start in the coming months, with a target for all the schemes to be completed by Spring 2026.
Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, more than 7.86 million GP appointments were provided in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – 377,000 more than the previous year.
It is hoped that funding for the new schemes announced by the Government will provide a further boost to the number of appointments available to meet increasing demand.
Amanda Sullivan, Chief Executive of NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, said: “Our GP practice workforce continue to do a brilliant job and provided more than 7.8 million appointments last year. But we know that demand continues to increase and some patients still find it difficult to access GP services.
“GP practice teams have been expanded in recent years to include additional roles such as physiotherapists, pharmacists, social prescribers and mental health practitioners, bringing additional expertise and capacity to local GP Practices. However, sometimes practices are constrained by the physical space available to make best use of the brilliant new resource, which these building schemes are intended to address.”
GP practices to benefit from investment
The GP practices in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire included are listed below, including estimated costs, the projected increase in appointments and the relevant Primary Care Network (PCN):
- Bakersfield Medical Centre, Bakersfield, Nottingham (City East PCN): Convert medical records store to clinical consulting following digitisation of notes. Additional appointments: 22,500 per annum. Total cost: £60,000.
- Family Medical Centre, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (Ashfield South PCN): Convert Practice Manager’s office to consulting room. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £30,000.
- Highcroft Surgery, Arnold (Arnold and Calverton PCN): Create additional clinical space and a self-help area by converting an office and meeting room into consulting rooms and repurposing two underutilised rooms into fully functioning clinical spaces. Additional appointments: 19,000 per annum. Total cost: £60,000.
- North Leverton Surgery, North Leverton (Retford and Villages PCN): Convert underutilised non-clinical room into fully functioning clinical consulting room. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £20,000.
- Welbeck Surgery, Sherwood (Bestwood and Sherwood PCN): Reconfigure back office admin space to make it more efficient and remove the need for additional primary care staff to use clinical space when they are not seeing patients. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £20,000.
- Newthorpe Medical Practice, Eastwood (Nottingham West PCN): Conversion of two ground floor administrative rooms into clinical rooms, and conversion of loft space into two replacement administrative rooms. Additional appointments: 15,000 per annum. Total cost: £80,000.
- Lowmoor Road Surgery, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (Ashfield South PCN): Split oversized Treatment Room into 2 consulting rooms. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £60,000
- Kingfisher Family Practice, Retford (Retford and Villages PCN): Convert office to clinical space. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £130,000.
- Parkside Medical Practice, Bulwell, Nottingham (Bulwell and Top Valley PCN): Convert Practice Manager and Secretaries offices into two clinical rooms. Additional appointments: 15,000 per annum. Total cost: £150,000
- Southwell Medical Centre, Southwell (Newark PCN): Convert underutilised room to fully functioning clinical room to house the practice triage team, freeing up space in 2-3 consulting rooms. Additional appointments: 10,000 per annum. Total cost: £30,000.
- The Oaks Medical Practice, Beeston (Nottingham West PCN): Create additional GP clinical room by reconfiguring store room and part of waiting area and create new clinical triage hub by reconfiguring part of reception. Additional appointments: 15,000 per annum. Total cost: £90,000
- Lakeside Surgery, Langold, Worksop (Larwood and Bawtry PCN): Reduce size of reception area to create additional clinical room and create private self-health pod. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £60,000.
- Derby Road Health Centre, Lenton, Nottingham (City South PCN): Convert one office into one clinical consulting room. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £30,000
- East Bridgford Medical Centre, East Bridgford (Rushcliffe PCN): Conversion of office into clinical consulting room, requiring repositioning of the IT server to an alternative location in the building. Additional appointments: 12,500 per annum. Total cost: £50,000
- Brierley Park Medical Group, Huthwaite (Ashfield North PCN): Convert unused dirty utility and part of underutilised children’s play area to create clinical space. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £40,000
- Crown House Surgery, Retford (Retford and Villages PCN): Convert part of waiting room to patient-facing base for Care Navigator team. Additional appointments: 2,000 per annum. Total cost: £170,000.
- Abbey Medical Centre, Beeston (Nottingham West PCN): Move admin team from ground to first floor, convert vacated office to an additional ground floor clinical room. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £60,000
- Sherwood Medical Partnership, Forest Town (Sherwood PCN): Convert large, under-utilised ground floor store room to consulting room. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £20,000.
- Larwood Surgery, Worksop (Larwood and Bawtry PCN): Reconfiguration of reception area to private self-health pod allows practice to implement GP Assistant role. Additional appointments: 2,000 per annum. Total cost: £10,000.
- Torkard Medical Centre, Hucknall (Byron PCN): Convert underutilised admin office into self-care area, saving on GP appointments. Additional appointments: 2,000 per annum. Total cost: £10,000.
- Calverton Practice, Calverton (Arnold and Calverton PCN): Small first-floor extension to create one consulting room and expansion of dispensary. Additional appointments: 7,500 per annum. Total cost: £120,000.
- Orchard Surgery, Kegworth (Rushcliffe PCN): Single-storey extension to the rear to create three new large clinical rooms, one office space, two WCs, one store room, and a staff room, plus five additional car parking spaces. Additional appointments: 22,500 per annum. Total cost: £700,000.
