Multi-million pound redevelopment of L'Aumone Surgery under way

The IslandHealth centre will be more than 1,000sq. m – triple the size of the current 1970s building – with 12 consulting rooms.

The extra space will come from a two-storey extension on the field to the west of the current building. The two structures will be linked by a glass walkway.

A digger was starting to clear the field yesterday. It is estimated the project will be completed in early 2023.

IslandHealth chairwoman Dr Julia Rebstein said the expansion coincided with an increase in GPs at the business, with demand growing. There are about 700 GP appointments a week at the surgery.

‘The current L’Aumone Surgery is getting close to the end of its working life and the time is right for us to make this investment,’ she said.

‘Our patients have told us that they feel very positively about the clinical care that is provided at the L’Aumone Surgery, but the same can’t be said for the building itself. The new site will of course be purpose-built and access to it will be so much better than is the case now.’

Currently there are seven GP consulting rooms, so the new build will nearly double that.

The site will have 60 parking spaces and dedicated entry and exit roads.

In addition to the GP and nurse services already provided, the site will also offer physiotherapy, osteopathy, podiatry and psychotherapy.

Dr Rebstein said they had designed the centre to be a medical hub and were keen to talk to other clinicians such as dentists or opticians or any other business that have a connection with health and medicine that might want to be located there.

The project is a two-storey building served by a lift, with patient-facing services on the ground floor and administrative and support staff on the upper floor.

RG Falla is the main contractor and other specialist Guernsey firms have also been used in the project development up to this point.

Practice project lead Dr Robbie Hanna said they were committed to being good neighbours.

‘That means once the project is complete, but also during

the build phase, we will keep in regular dialogue with them,’ he said.

‘For several months patients will continue to see their GP as normal while the work in the adjoining field progresses to create the new building. Contractor access to that site will be directly into that field, so there will be no impact on patients attending the surgery.

‘Later on in the project as the new building gets closer to completion, there will be different arrangements in place.

‘We will keep our patients and all our other stakeholders well informed about this as the project advances.’

The new building is due to be completed in October 2022. Services will be decanted into that to allow work to take place on the existing building.

While the new building would be an expansion, Dr Hanna said they would be trying to keep the surgery's 'family practice' atmosphere.