West Cumbrian GP Surgery To Reopen After £336,730 Investment

​A long closed West Cumbrian GP surgery is set to reopen next year after a major investment aimed at expanding local healthcare capacity.

Griffin Close Surgery in Frizington, operated by Fellview Healthcare, has been closed for several years because of staffing pressures. The building is now set to undergo refurbishment and reconfiguration following an investment of £336,730. The work is intended to increase the number of consultation rooms while also creating a dedicated training hub for medical students and future doctors working in community healthcare settings.

Funding for the project has been secured through NHS England's Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Funding. The investment has been supported by the North Cumbria Primary Care Alliance and Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister, who has identified the reopening of the surgery as an important priority. The funding will allow the existing premises to be upgraded and brought back into use.

The renewed facility is expected to play a wider role than simply providing additional consultation space. It will also become a training location for students from Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, creating an opportunity for medical education to take place within a working community healthcare environment. The arrangement is intended to connect training with the needs of local patients and practices.

Fellview Healthcare is also planning to recruit additional doctors who will work across its practices in Frizington, Cleator Moor, Egremont and Whitehaven. The recruitment programme is intended to increase the number of GPs available across the group and improve capacity in communities that have experienced difficulties with GP workforce numbers over a prolonged period.

The project is therefore designed to address both immediate and longer term healthcare requirements. Increasing the number of consultation rooms will provide additional physical capacity for appointments, while the training hub is intended to support the development of doctors who could eventually work in the local area. Together, the two elements form part of a broader approach to strengthening primary care provision.

Josh MacAlister said reopening Griffin Close Surgery had been a priority and welcomed the funding secured with the North Cumbria Primary Care Alliance and Fellview Healthcare. He said the project was about more than reopening the building, with the partnership expected to bring additional GPs into Fellview's practices while also supporting the training of future doctors.

The MP also highlighted the potential benefits for patients across several West Cumbrian communities. The additional GP capacity is expected to support patients in Frizington, Cleator Moor, Egremont and Whitehaven, while the training programme could contribute to a longer term supply of doctors choosing to train and work in Cumbria.

North Cumbria Primary Care Alliance managing director Sue Porto and GP lead for Copeland Dr Ami Hall said the refurbishment and reconfiguration had been made possible through the successful funding application. They said the investment would increase the number of consultation rooms and improve the facilities available for delivering care to patients.

The partnership with Pears Cumbria School of Medicine will provide a dedicated educational facility within the refurbished surgery. The medical school is a partnership between the University of Cumbria and Imperial College London, with the new hub intended to provide students with experience of healthcare delivery within community settings.

The training facility will not be limited to undergraduate medical students. The project is also expected to support doctors undertaking postgraduate training, alongside other healthcare professionals developing their skills. This creates a broader educational role for the site and could allow a range of healthcare professionals to benefit from training opportunities in West Cumbria.

Professor Mary Morell, head of Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, said the project represented more than a new training facility. She described it as a shared educational resource for West Cumbria that could support students from the school as well as medical students from other institutions and doctors in postgraduate training.

The school also expects the facility to provide opportunities for other healthcare professionals to develop skills within community settings. By bringing together clinical expertise, training funding and local partnerships, the project is intended to create learning opportunities while contributing to healthcare provision for people across Cumbria.

The workforce element of the scheme is particularly significant for communities that have experienced GP shortages. Recruiting additional doctors across the Fellview network could increase the number of clinicians available to support existing services, while the training hub may provide a route for future doctors to gain experience locally.

The investment also reflects an attempt to make use of an existing healthcare building that has remained closed for several years. Rather than establishing an entirely new site, the project will refurbish and reconfigure Griffin Close Surgery so that it can accommodate additional consultation rooms and educational facilities.

Once reopened, the Frizington surgery is expected to become part of a wider network of practices supporting patients across West Cumbria. The additional capacity will be shared across the Fellview practices, meaning the benefits of the investment are intended to extend beyond the immediate community surrounding Griffin Close.

The project is also expected to contribute to the longer term development of the local medical workforce. By providing students and doctors in training with experience in West Cumbrian community healthcare, the partnership hopes to encourage more medical professionals to build their careers in the area and potentially remain in Cumbria after completing their training.

The reopening will therefore combine improvements to an existing GP facility with a wider programme of medical education and recruitment. The £336,730 investment is intended to increase healthcare capacity for patients while creating a base for training the next generation of doctors and other healthcare professionals.

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