GPs on move as three sites to close

Thousands of patients in Wolverhampton will see their GP services moved after it was today announced three city practices will close and be relocated to the former Royal Hospital.

Wolverhampton Primary Care Trust is preparing to create new headquarters at the landmark building as part of the former hospital’s £150 million transformation and today announced three surgeries will be set up inside. The PCT, which is currently based at Coniston House in Chapel Ash, today declined to reveal which three practices will be on the move.

The hospital site in All Saints is being restored to glory by owner Tesco as part of a development featuring more than 100 homes and a leisure complex.

Maxine Espley, director of provider services at Wolverhampton PCT, said: “We are working with planners and the conservation department on details for the project because it is still at a very early stage for us.

“We always wanted to put clinical facilities back into this site and we will be setting up three GP practices which will be relocated into there from other parts of Wolverhampton.

“It is really exciting for us to be able to improve these GP facilities.”

Workers spent more than six months demolishing old buildings on the historic site as part of the project.

The grand facade of the old hospital has been opened up again and thousands of tons of rubble and steel created from the work is being stored ready to be ploughed back into the development.

A host of features from the 19th century site, which closed in 1997, are being preserved for future generations, including stone plaques in the hospital’s operating theatres, decorative ceiling panels and timber window shutters.

The transformation project has been halted to give the main hospital building time to dry out following months of renovation work. It is expected to start again in summer next year.

Tesco yesterday revealed security guards have been drafted in to protect the historic site from yobs 24-hours-a-day after it suffered from repeated vandalism while derelict over the years.