April 29 2005

Doctors Neil and Linda Duffin have extended their Farndon Health Centre premises – originally a converted 1970s bungalow – twice since they took over the practice in 1990. Once again they are bursting at the seams and need more space.

Faced with the prospect of a third extension and the capital investment required, they decided that they no longer wanted to be property owners and have sold the premises to the Medical Property Fund who are committed to successfully developing an extension.

As Dr Neil Duffin said, “An extension, which we badly need, would be another significant capital commitment for us. Looking ahead ten years or so to when we will be planning for retirement, we can envisage that finding GPs to buy us out could be difficult. The capital commitment would be substantial for incoming GPs and increasingly GPs are salaried; so we decided that third party ownership and a long term relationship with a landlord who can push forward the development is the ideal solution.”

The Farndon practice serves a patient list of 3,900 in an attractive commuter village on the edge of Chester. In addition to Doctors Neil and Linda Duffin working full time, the practice has two part time GPs, a practice manager, practice nurse, nurse clinician and six part time administration staff.

“With only two consulting rooms and limited other space, we are constantly playing musical chairs”, added Dr Neil Duffin.

“The extension will not only solve our immediate space problems, it will give us capacity for taking on more patients eventually and improve the patient experience.”

Working with the PCT, MPF will now take forward the plans for a two storey extension which will provide two extra consulting rooms and a large office area. At the same time the plan will enable small alterations to be made to the existing building to create some more space.

This story was also featured in Issue 2 of our Property Matters Newsletter. You may download a copy of this from the panel on the right hand side.