A HEALTH centre could be knocked down and rebuilt with more facilities in an effort to ease the burden on oversubscribed surgeries.

Basildon Council and NHS England are in talks about redeveloping Wickford Health Centre, in Market Road, to include extra treatment rooms, blood testing, ultrasound scans and other community services.

The Tory administration would sell off land in the road, which is home to a block of maisonettes, to fund the development and then rent it back to NHS England.

The proposals come after David Harrison, Ukip councillor for Wickford Park, organised crunch talks between crossparty councillors, NHS England bosses and representatives from Basildon and Brentwood Clinic Commissioning Group.

He said: “This is very important for Wickford. There are so many developments going on in the area, so we’ve got to get the health facilities in place tomake sure we're prepared for the future.

“Sometimes you have to put politics aside and work with other parties to do what is best for residents.”

The new health centre would be across the road to the proposed GP surgery on the former Wickford Market site.

Those plans are due to be decided on by Basildon Council’s planning committee within the next fewmonth.

They were previously thrown out by the committee when Mr Harrison and his Ukip colleagues complained about a lack of health services available and amount of parking spaces in the proposals.

Phil Turner, Tory leader of Basildon Council, said: “NHS England just doesn’t have the money for another health centre, but if we could do a land deal we could build them a facility.

If we can get the first surgery through planning, then we can look into doing something opposite it on the site of the existing health centre. When Malcolm Buckley, our former councillor for regeneration, started doing this that was what he wanted.

“We’re talking to NHS England, but it’s in the very early stages.”

Doctors and patients reveal healthcare ‘deep concerns’

FRUSTRATED patients and doctors have admitted health care in Wickford is at crisis point because of the growing population.

Three months ago participation groups at the Robert Frew Medical Centre, in Silva Island Way, the Shotgate Surgery, in Southend Road, the Wickford Health Centre and the Applewood Surgery, both in Market Road, the Swan Lane Surgery and the London Road Surgery joined forces to write an open letter to NHS bosses highlighting their “deep concerns”.

Major housing developments are underway in the town, including the 575-home St Luke’s Park development, on the former Runwell Hospital site, to the north of Wickford, and the 50-house development at Beauchamps Place, on Southend Road.

Basildon Council has given the green light to another 864 homes at various sites around Wickford, and the town is earmarked for 2,800 extra properties by 2031as part of the borough’s local plan.

The £2million new doctors surgery on the former Wickford Market site, in Market Road, is set to include eight examination rooms and three treatment rooms.

It is set to replace the existing London Road Surgery, and will increase the number of doctors in the area.

The market has been moved to the High Street and the newly-created Market Lane as part of a £3.2million regeneration of the town.