Surbiton Hospital: consultation ahead

There have been a number of meetings of  ‘stakeholders’ in the last few weeks, a special meeting of the Health Overview Panel of RBK and a meeting of the Board of the Kingston PCT on Tuesday 11th August.

The PCT has now appointed consultants   to design a scheme and take it forward. Key to the thinking on the future development of the site will be the findings in the report produced by McKinsey’s last year. Essentially the core development will be a polyclinic arrangement housing several GP practices and other, outpatient, facilities ancillary to them. This could mean that some treatments for which Surbiton and Chessington and Hook residents now have to travel to Kingston Hospital, may be carried out at the new Surbiton facility.

Other facilities could be developed on the site in addition to the purely medical ones in what is coming to be called a ‘polysystem’ approach or ‘community hub’.

Consultation should be starting in September and we would encourage all residents to make their views on the future services they would like to see on the site by whatever means they can. We happily offer this site as one means by which people may do so.

Paul Johnston, who has attended and spoken at all the meetings on the future of the site, told the PCT Board,

‘ I very much welcome the assurance of a future for this site as a state of the art health and social facility for the people of Surbiton. It has always been our aim and we will do all we can to speed the exciting plans forward’.

The core health and ancillary faclities will not take up the whole site and a question which will have to be addressed is what else might usefully go there. One idea being canvassed is a new primary school to meet the demand for school places in parts of Surbiton. Addressing the PCT, Paul said, ‘Everyone knows that there is a need for places for more school children in Surbiton. But I have serious doubts over whether any part of the hospital site is the right place to provide a new school, given problems of access that might very well arise, using the local roads.’

The ‘school question’ is, however, an entirely different one from the matter upon which the PCT will be consulting and residents should avoid confusing the two issues. RBK will have to consult on the school question entirely separately.