New homes pose challenge to health services

Health chiefs do not yet know how they will deal with the surge in population that could come from building hundreds of new homes in the borough.

Rochdale Council has to build 460 homes each year to meet demand and is proposing to create 643 extra properties per annum under the region’s development masterplan – the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF).

But a senior GP has said that, as yet, there is no answer to how health services will cope with a significant rise in the population.

Tony Ettenfield, of the Better Health 4 Middleton group, quizzed bosses on how GPs surgeries would be able to cope with the pressure from an influx of people into the Middleton area.

Developers Taylor Wimpey and Wain Homes have planning permission for nearly 500 homes in the Hollin Lane and Langley Lane areas.

And, in the longer term, the GMSF includes building 2,700 new homes split between Bowlee and Birch – in Middleton – and Simister in Prestwich by 2040.

Addressing a meeting of Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group (HMR CCG) governing body, Mr Ettenfield said: “There’s a concern at the moment over do we have enough provision of surgeries and GPs in Middleton, considering the new homes that are being built, up to an (estimated) 800 new homes.

“We can’t get appointments now, we have to wait three weeks now to see a doctor so another 800 homes  isn’t going to help.”

Dr Chris Duffy, who chairs the governing board’s meetings, said that there were currently not enough GPs in the borough ‘irrespective’ of the proposed new housing.

He said: “Across HMR CCG we are at least 25 GPs short for the population we have got.

“What we don’t know as yet (in Middleton) is whether that’s just a redistribution of the population or whether it’s an influx of new people.

“It’s new homes, but it’s the people that go into those homes – are they moving from other areas of Middleton, so it’s the same people?

“It doesn’t necessarily mean there is going to be a significant increase in the populaton. There’s a risk that it might , and we need to work through how we are going to deliver health services – and education services and transport infrastructure.

“It’s on our agenda, but we have not got an answer as yet.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter