Super medical centre is planned

Rushden’s nine doctors, three in each practice, have joined forces to provide financial support for a central medical centre to serve the whole of Rushden, Higham Ferrers and patients from the surrounding area.

This new scheme is believed to be the first time three separate practices have joined to serve the community as a whole. It is hoped to start work on the new centre before the end of the year.

The single storey building will be built at Adnitt Road just off Wellingborough Road, Rushden. It will be self-contained and provide greater facilities for doctors and patients.

A spokesman for the Rushden doctors said this was not a County Council project. The doctors were financing it themselves.

He said the present surgeries in Rushden would be closed and all doctors would work from the centre. However, surgeries at Higham Ferrers and Irchester would remain open.

This does not mean the doctors have formed into one practice. Doctors will still deal with their individual patients.

Appointment

The new medical centre will remain open all day and it is planned to introduce an appointment system. This will enable the doctors to work more efficiently and cut down waiting time for patients. There will also be provision for dealing with emergencies.

“It will be run like a hospital out-patients department, but on more informal and less impersonal lines,” the spokesman told the Echo.

The centre will include seven doctors’ consulting rooms, a waiting room, a health visitors’ room, a qualified sisters’ treatment room plus a waiting room, general office, secretary’s room, doctors’ common room, toilet facilities and general storage rooms.

It is also planned to provide a pram park and car park outside.

With all the doctors under one roof there will probably be a rota system introduced for the weekend and evening calls. Some doctors already have this system in operation.

Although they are entitled to a loan from the Ministry of Health, the doctors have financed this project with no expense to the rates. As such it should receive the full backing of the public and the council.

New Medical Centre to Open in Autumn, but Higham Asks
Will we be left out in cold?

The new medical centre being built in Rushden is due for completion in July and local doctors hope to move in this autumn.

Doctors from the three practices in Rushden and Higham Ferrers have combined resources to provide the one central building from which they conduct their surgeries. The centre is being built off the Wellingborough Road in Rushden.

Higham’s fears were put to one of the doctors dealing with the arrangements for the new centre and he told the “Echo”: “We are fully aware of the problems facing some people in Higham, particularly the elderly, in travelling to the new centre in Rushden, and of course we are aware of the patients who still need to be visited and that is why we intend to maintain the present surgery in Higham as a branch surgery. The same will apply in Irchester.”

Individual

He emphasised that, although all doctors in the town would be operating from one building, they would remain as separate practices. “We feel it is important to preserve that individual doctor-patient relationship and patients will still be able to see their own doctors. “But by pooling our resources we will be able to operate much more efficiently and of course be able to afford additional clerical and trained nursing staff.

“They will be able to take over duties which at the moment often have to be done by the doctor. This will leave the doctor with more time to do the job he is trained to do – practice medicine. It will also mean we will be able to operate an appointment system, which will be beneficial to the patient and to the doctors. In fact, as a doctor I cannot see any disadvantages – only advantages – from operating from a central building,” he said.

The doctor agreed that the new centre might mean a drop in the amount of prescriptions taken out at Higham Ferrers and he thought this was an unfortunate side effect.

A spokesman for the Higham Chemist store told the “Echo” that he was concerned by the fact that the number of surgeries would be reduced in Higham.

“If the number of prescriptions coming to the shop drop substantially, it might mean the shop will have to close. This would mean a loss of dispensing services and, of course, certain pharmaceutical products.”

Rushden Amenities Society chairman Mr. G. Marriott said that his society had written to the doctors suggesting that a meeting might be arranged prior to the opening of the new centre to explain to the public how it will operate.

The doctors’ representative appreciated that what was happening in Rushden was rather revolutionary and could well understand some people having initial anxieties. However, he stressed that there was no need. The new centre would enable doctors to provide a better and more efficient service to the general benefit of everybody.

Doctors to discuss medical centre

A public meeting organised by Rushden Amenities Society at which the doctors of the town will explain the working of the new medical centre in Adnitt Road, Rushden, will probably take place early in May, it was announced last night at the society’s first annual meeting.

Mr. R. R. Griffiths, a former chairman of Rushden Urban Council and now the society’s president, said that when he first heard of the idea of the formation of an amenities society in the town he thought it “a bit of a bind.”

However, he had been “completely converted” by what the society had achieved during its first year and indicated that he would be glad to accept the presidency which was offered for another year.

During the social part of the meeting at the Rock Foundation Hall, about seventy members saw coloured slides and films of Rushden.

Report

The films were taken and edited by Mr. J. W. Houghton, of Rushden Cine Club, and the slides were taken and shown by Mr. Arthur George.

Mr. G. W. Marriott was chairman at the meeting and a report of the year’s activities was read by secretary Mr. Clive Wood. The treasurer, Mr. L. Larman, reported that the society had finished its first year with a credit balance of nearly £30.

Mr. Marriott, Mr. Wood, Mr. Larman and Mrs. J. Slee, Press officer, were all re-elected.

The committee was re-elected with the addition of Mrs. Larman.

Idea is First Class

The new joint general medical centre being built by nine local doctors in Adnitt Road, Rushden – just off Wellingborough Road – will probably be opened in August. But before the official opening members of the public will be invited to a meeting to explain how the new centre will work.

Some months ago the “Echo” revealed that the nine doctors in Rushden and Higham Ferrers had combined resources to operate from one central building. And last week, through one of the doctors, the “Echo” tried to reassure people living in Rushden and Higham Ferrers that there would be no loss of service or efficiency – in fact the new medical centre would improve both.

This is basically reconfirmed in a Press statement issued this week by the nine doctors and Rushden Amenities Society, who first suggested that a public meeting should be held.

The statement says: “Before the opening of the centre the doctors of Rushden and the Rushden Amenities Society are jointly inviting the general public to an open meeting at which doctors will be present to explain the benefits to patients which they hope will result from this appointment system at a central medical headquarters.”

The statement once again confirms that the Higham Ferrers and Irchester surgeries will remain as branches to the main centre, that there will be no change in the present freedom of the patient, but a great improvement in the means of consultation.

I think the decision to have a meeting prior to the new centre opening a first class idea. People who have anxieties will be able to put their questions to the doctors, who, I am sure, will be able to relieve any fears people might have.

Doctors explain new medical centre at Rushden

A remarkable turn-out of well over 500 people took the opportunity of hearing a panel of doctors explain the workings of the new Rushden Medical Centre, which it was said would be opened next month, when a special meeting was held at the Rushden Boys’ Secondary School in Rushden last night.

The medical centre has been built and financed by the doctors in Rushden and all of them will operate from the centre.

At the meeting, Dr. B. W. Paine explained it and told the many people present of the advantages they would gain.

Dr. Paine said that the new building, which is in Adnitt Road, Rushden, would be pleasant to wait in, but with the new centre there were bound to be teething troubles.

He added that there was certainly a world shortage of doctors but the percentage to patients in Great Britain was rising year by year.

Following his talk there were several questions on the health service and the new centre.

Mrs. A. U. Muxlow, a former chairman of the County Health Committee for ten years, congratulated the doctors on their scheme and said that as far as she knew there was only one other project of its kind in the county – at Daventry.

She added that the whole eyes of the county would be on this scheme and the doctors and people should pull together to make it a success.

Doctors optimistic on medical centre

“Much better than we expected” – this was the verdict of doctors from the three practices in Rushden and Higham Ferrers after the opening this week of the new Rushden medical centre which they have provided through their combined resources as a central surgery.

Nine doctors conduct the surgeries at the centre which is situated in Adnitt Road off the Wellingborough Road, using a system of consultation only by prior appointment which they want to maintain rigidly.

Instead of the doctors keeping their previous surgery times which should have been from 9 to 10 am and from about 5.30 or 6 to 7 pm they now see patients throughout the day from 9 am to 6 pm with only an hour break for lunch.

The doctors say that this should be beneficial to them and the patients. Previously long periods of waiting were sometimes unavoidable and the doctors usually found their surgeries stretched several hours over the set times.

Another advantage of the centre is that the doctors can by-pass some of the routine work which holds them up. Such things as minor injuries, the taking out of stitches and injections can be done by the nurse on duty. Evidence of this time saving was noticed even on the first day.

One of the major advantages of the centre is that it is hoped waiting time will be cut to a minimum. When teething troubles are over it should last no longer than a few minutes.

The doctors have no plans to close their surgeries in Higham Ferrers and Irchester in the foreseeable future and, in fact, anticipate that they may have to increase the number of doctors at some time in the future. The idea will be to maintain and, where possible, improve the quality of the service.

Misgiving

One slight misgiving the doctors voiced is that they hope there will not be a loss of personal contact. They said that they would take steps to ensure that this did not occur.

As for the centre itself, there were a few “technical hitches” early in the week with the internal communication system not having been installed. There was also trouble with the outside telephones which caused a little delay to waiting patients while others arrived without prior appointments and hoped to be seen.

The general opinion of the patients in the communal waiting room on Tuesday afternoon was that they had a few grumbles. Some were kept waiting others had to return after finding they could not just walk in.

They realised, however, that such a centre would have its teething troubles and they thought that once these were overcome it would certainly be an advantage to the town.