Buy a brick for the Phoenix Wellbeing Centre

The Phoenix Wellbeing Centre is an ambitious project to improve and upgrade healthcare provision for
Long Crendon and the surrounding villages. Since the project started, the questions of how much it will
cost and how much we need to raise have been asked. The Parish Council was given an initial build
figure of £1 million but are aware that building costs have recently increased by up to 20%. While our
MP, Greg Smith, is extremely optimistic of securing funding of £1 million from central government, we
are starting our own fundraising to cover the cost of a premium quality building that is a legacy for
future users.

The Phoenix Fundraising committee has set a target of £250,000. As there is £25,000 in the
Phoenix Wellbeing charity fund from a variety of initiatives and donations, we have already achieved
10% of the target which is a great start. Whether you can spare a little or a lot, Buy a Brick allows you to make a personal donation towards the Centre. Please use the form below to make your donation. 

 

Buy a Brick Donation Form

pwlc2022@gmail.com

 

We have the Winning Logo for the Phoenix Wellbeing Centre

Thanks to everyone who voted. The winning logo is … logo 1!

There will be more updates on fundraising events and activities soon. 

Help Choose the Logo for the Phoenix Wellbeing Centre

 

Do you want to be part of the Health Centre Fundraising and Grant Application Committee?

Update 22nd February 2022

This page has been produced and edited by the fundraising group for the Phoenix Welling Centre. The Parish Council take no responsibility for its contents.   

Following the commencement of building works and the approval from the planning officer, a new committee is needed to drive the fundraising and grant applications to ensure the Phoenix Wellbeing Centre becomes a reality. While Greg Smith MP has yet to confirm whether central government funding will be forthcoming, fundraising will be needed to ensure the Phoenix Wellbeing Centre is not only completed but an outstanding role model for rural health care. This means not simply replacing the current Trinity Health building with a more modern version but something far more visionary. The goal is to create a practise where our community can not only see doctors and nurses and collect prescriptions but also a space for groups and practitioners focussed on a holistic approach to health.

Until Greg Smith confirms the amount of government funding, a fixed target cannot be set but we can start planning how to successfully raise funds. To manage the overall fundraising goals, the Parish Council and SOS Long Crendon group are setting up a new committee. The fundraising and grant committee will oversee rather than manage each event. As the Summer Fete and Tracey’s auction of skills and experiences have shown, individuals can organise very successful events. The committee will be on hand to ensure any fundraising done for the Phoenix Wellbeing charity is compliant with the Charities Commission, promoted widely, engaging as many members of the community as possible and above all, fun! In addition, the committee will work on grant applications to support the project. The committee will include members of the Parish Council as they will be responsible for managing the building project and the finished building. 

Despite the challenges of the past two years, our village community has shown strength and resilience and we want to capture some of this great spirit. New events like the Advent Windows and Scarecrow Trail have showcased creative talent and a desire to build an engaged and compassionate village. Previous SOS and PC meetings have shown there is a breadth and depth of experience and willingness to get involved with both fundraising and grant applications. If you have relevant experience, please apply to PWLC2022@gmail.com  for the following roles:

Chairperson

Treasurer

Legal

Secretary

Marketing and Social Media

Fundraising and Events

Grant applications

Long Crendon Phoenix Wellbeing Centre Update 13th December 2021

The Long Crendon SOS Committee and Parish Council have news that is literally ground breaking! The Phoenix Wellbeing Centre building development has commenced. Expect to see diggers and builders on site as Long Crendon takes its first steps towards our new Wellbeing Centre. This is the beginning of an exciting time for Long Crendon and worth celebrating and commemorating. As it’s Christmas, why not pop on your festive hat and take an “Elfie” at the site to share on the new Phoenix Wellbeing Facebook and Instagram pages? We are keen to find out what you hope the wellbeing centre will bring whether its podiatry, prescriptions, friendship groups or something else. Send us a word or sentence to let us know and we’ll share them with the village. The Parish Council and Long Crendon SOS Committee have done an amazing job in getting us to this stage. This has been backed by excellent fundraising initiatives and generous donations from Long Crendon residents which have covered the cost of the work to date. However, to complete the project is going to take a substantial sum. Greg Smith MP is trying to secure funding from central government and should have an update in the new year. Once this is confirmed, we can set a funding target and get to work.  The Phoenix Wellbeing Trust has been confirmed as a charity and the SOS committee is ready to pass the baton on to the community’s new Phoenix Wellbeing Trust to take this project to the next phase. Please do contact us if you want to be involved.

There is already a quiz planned for January and it would be wonderful to think of this as the first of many events in the village fundraising calendar. We are looking for volunteers to come up with ideas for other events in 2022. Maybe you’ve always fancied having a 24 hour disco or organising a multi-generational sports day. Perhaps you want to turn your back garden or field into an outdoor cinema or music venue for the evening. Whether you want to plan, host or be a general helper, we want to hear from you. In addition to fundraising, there are grants that can be applied for and local businesses we can contact. If you have the experience and enthusiasm to assist with this, get in touch via PWLC2022@gmail.com

 

Surgery Closure

During a recent village Zoom meeting the Save Our Surgery Group (SOS) collated questions asked by participants.  This website https://www.long-crendon.com will be used to update on the progress of the proposed “Health and Wellbeing Centre” as more information becomes available.

The latest news is that the architect, Alex Bond, hopes to provide the Parish Council with plans by the end of March.  It is expected that these will be discussed, finalised and agreed at the next PC meeting on the 6^th April and the plans submitted to Buckinghamshire immediately.

Ultimately, the SOS Committee and the Parish Council are keen to engage with residents from Long Crendon and other villages that use the surgery to understand their aspirations for the creation of a health and wellness centre.  SOS will continue to keep you updated with progress both in the Crier and through Facebook, posters and possibly another public meeting as well as this website.  In the meantime, please do keep in touch with them and send all questions about the project through the SOS group email: soscrendon@gmail.com.  This is the central point for questions about the project for the Parish Council, PCMS or Unity Health.

Here are some answers to questions that have arisen so far.  Some of these have also be published elsewhere.

How is this new Centre going to be funded?

The Parish Council has taken the lead to secure funding for the capital costs of developing the new surgery.  The Council is currently exploring borrowing money over a long-term period taking advantage of cheaper borrowing rates.  It will ultimately be responsible for the sites use.

Long Crendon SOS, the Parish Council and Unity Health have been in conversations with the Clinical Commissioning Group about funding a new health and wellness centre.  While the CCG made it clear that they were not prepared to fund a surgery of a similar size to Brill, there was wide recognition of the need to make adequate provision for healthcare and wellbeing in Long Crendon and the surrounding villages and hamlets.  It is understood that the CCG is willing to provide some funding for the surgery and dispensary to operate. This would be a major contribution to the running of the centre generally.

The Community Health and Wellness Centre will need to secure operational funding to pay for the running costs of maintaining the centre.  Unity Health has indicated they would likely rent the community space on a regular basis for practice meetings and similar events.  It is also expected that the space will generate interest from a variety of healthcare practitioners and wellbeing groups that would subsidise the running costs of the centre.

Greg Smith, MP for Buckingham, has said on a number of occasions that he would like to investigate possible funding from central government to offset the capital costs of building the surgery.

A number of residents in Long Crendon have indicated their willingness to donate to the project or help to towards fund raising.  An SOS Committee is currently investigating a variety of fund-raising activities including holding a village fete (if this can be done safely) to raise funds towards the capital costs of the surgery construction.

Please give some clarification as to what “a venue for community activities” might mean.

The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) would like to see the new surgery and the community space it accompanies used in an innovative way to meet its own objectives.  The SOS Committee has explored a range of examples of other centres.  While Long Crendon has several venues for community groups to meet, the village does not have a dedicated community space that is specifically geared towards health and wellness.  Community activities could include hosting events that focus on mental health, physical wellness, dementia, and other health issues that have been identified by residents.

Questions already published by SOS are as follows: –

“I can see there is much to do and a very tight timescale in which it needs to be achieved in order to avoid the land reverting to the developer. It would be useful to set out a full timeline on how it is anticipated the timetable will run (and needs to run) – from the date of submitting the planning application to all the stages needed to get to a point where the land is secured for this project and cannot revert to the developer.”

The ‘critical path’ is as follows (the Parish Council as owner of the land is responsible for the actions, with their appointed architects and building contractors):

1.  Submit application to Buckinghamshire County Council for planning permission

2.  Prepare tender pack for construction phase

3.  Prepare business case and apply for funding for the project

4.  Issue tender pack to contractors –

5.  Award construction contract

6.  Commence pre-construction phase

7.  Commence construction phase

Number 1 is being prepared now for submission this month (March).  Number 7 must happen before 22^nd December 2021 but ideally earlier.  On this date the Parish Council would become obliged to transfer the land back to Spitfire Homes according to the documents which granted the planning permission for the development back in December 2016 and the subsequent transfer of the land from Spitfire to the Parish Council.

All the other steps must fit into this tight timescale, running concurrently where possible.  In order to be able to commence the construction before the deadline, we are advised that the building contract will have to be awarded by the end of September or early October at the very latest.  You will therefore understand that we really need the planning application to progress without any hitches, if at all possible!

“Can the Surgery be built in red brick to be in keeping with the rest of the Greenings development?”

The planners will consider it important that this building is distinguished from the residential properties of Greenings, whilst maintaining a harmonised approach to the design.  Since the houses are predominantly red brick, using a mixture of render and cladding will create that distinction.

“Has the location of the new children’s play area next to where the car park will be located been considered with regards to road safety, noise etc? Having some green space between might be a useful buffer.”

The children’s playground and the location of the proposed health centre were agreed at outline planning stage. The playground is designed for younger children and the playground is fenced. Access to the playground requires crossing either Chearsley Road or Pinners Way so younger children are likely to be accompanied. Vehicles arriving or leaving the health centre will, by definition, be turning off of, or onto, Pinners Way and should therefore be travelling slowly. The transport consultants have not identified any specific risk with the proposed car-park and access layout. If the project is required to make off-site highways improvements as a condition of any planning consent, it will do so.

“How much of the building will be allocated to surgery space?  How would it compare to the current surgery size?”

The building has been designed to support consultations with GPs, nurses and other health professionals as well as providing a dispensary and facilities to access online advice and consultations.  In addition to this the community space will be used for both wider community healthcare and wellbeing so it is hard to put a definitive number on how much of the building will be allocated to the ‘surgery space’. That said, the intent is that healthcare functions would generally use around two thirds of the built area, with the ability to use the remaining space as needed. The consulting rooms, treatment spaces, dispensary and waiting area are all to NHS standards and a significant improvement in size, layout and accessibility on the current New Chapel Surgery.

“Could you comment on lighting of site and impact after dark please?”

The site lighting will be low level and will be operated on a timer to ensure the minimum disturbance to nearby houses.

There were a number of comments & questions about the green roof. 

For those who are interested, there is a wealth of information to be found here: www.bauder.co.uk/green-roofs

Green roofs are environmentally beneficial and require very little maintenance.  For those concerned about waterlogging, please rest assured that, although the sedum will absorb a lot of moisture, any excess will run off through the permeable membrane under the sedum in the normal way via the gutters.  There will be a very slight slope on the roof to accommodate this.

How you can help: There were a number of comments and suggestions about environmental aspects of the building (e.g. electric car charge points, permeable carpark surface, wildflower garden etc, all of which are welcome and have been passed on to the architects). If you have knowledge or expertise in this area and are interested in working with SOS on these aspects of the future use of the centre, including possible funding avenues for making this happen, please get in touch.

 “Please give some clarification as to what “a venue for community activities” might mean.”

The range of activities will be determined in part by local health needs in the villages and surrounding areas, and national public health priorities and funding, but also by how we as a community want to use this health and wellbeing centre.

The centre is envisaged as a health and wellbeing space for the people and communities of Long Crendon and the surrounding villages.  Activities at the centre will be focussed on health and wellbeing. Activities could include medical and public health related services run by Unity Health and a range of other health practitioners, such as: vaccination clinics, diabetes prevention clinics, falls clinics, dementia prevention classes, or mother and baby classes. Practical social and economic support for health and well-being could also be provided here such as debt, welfare and housing advice, youth counselling or Covid response activities if still needed. Other health and wellbeing activities and classes may be run by community and voluntary groups such as Age UK, Alzheimer’s society, MIND or local village and community groups may choose to book the room(s) in the centre for their activities. For example, youth support groups, knit & natter groups, U3A groups, seniors exercise classes, Scrabble and crossword clubs etc. External activities could also take place in outside areas such as therapeutic gardening, if we choose as a community to develop these. In addition there may be an option for local health practitioners to book and use rooms for their professional practice – including holistic health providers.

SOS will be working with Unity Health and others involved in local health provision over the coming months to develop an operational plan for the centre, once the building planning goes through and we hope to include as many residents as possible in this process.

How you can help: If you are interested in helping with this planning and/ or have expertise in this area, please do contact us. Equally if you are a local practitioner or community or voluntary group and have ideas on the kinds of activities you could run from the centre please get in touch.

“How large will the community rooms be as this will impact the types of groups who can meet and for what purpose?”

The community room is currently intended to be just over 50m². This would suit a self-help group of up to 12 people, with plenty of space. It could undoubtedly hold more people for a talk or presentation. There is storage space and it is envisaged that folding chairs and tables could be stored on a trolley to give the maximum amount of flexibility for the space.

“You mentioned ‘booths’ for consultations – could you clarify please?”

The intention is to provide facilities, if possible, for those patients who do not have the ability to access online health consultations at home or who would prefer to have some help with this.  These consultations may be with the Unity Health practitioners, or with other medical professionals. Out-patient appointments from the hospital are increasingly being run remotely and therefore this would allow access for those without online provision at home.

“Has Unity Health indicated how much use it can make of the facility, e.g. how many half-day sessions per week would a doctor(s) be available for consultation?”

This will depend greatly on the need of the residents and the numbers who are unable to travel to other Unity Health sites. Based on the feedback to the public consultation, the greatest need seemed to be for the collection of medication and then for consultations with the nursing team (for regular bloods tests/dressings etc). We also anticipate offering different services in future as part of the new roles in primary care, such as appointments with a physiotherapist which may also require some face to face appointments. We also see the use of the facility changing, over time, to be much more focused on wellness and wellbeing, focused on the community working together to keep well and prevent ill health, rather than a place residents attend primarily when they are ‘ill’.

“Will the pharmacy still be operated by the surgery or will it be outsourced to Boots like the Thame surgery?”

Unity Health intends to continue operating the dispensary – there are no plans to outsource this.

“What plans exist for the surgery in the period whilst the new facility is being built, will it be a fully functioning surgery (as it was pre-Covid) or will it just continue as a dispensary?”

New Chapel surgery always had limitations in its use because of its size, design and location.  These issues meant it was very difficult to manage safely during the Covid restrictions.  However, the practice has committed to keep the dispensary open as it is currently and as soon as covid levels allow and the CCG agrees to resume some limited face to face appointments where these can be provided in a ‘covid secure’ way.  Some minor work will be needed to enable this to happen.

“If it is used outside of ‘surgery hours’ how would the integrity and security of medical records and drugs etc be maintained?”

There are no paper records stored at any Unity Health site so there are no issues around paper records.  The building will be designed to ensure that the dispensary will be secure and closed if other parts of the building are used by others as part of the wider community wellbeing function.

“Will the car park be large enough to have the breast screening van and other mobile services?”

Services like mobile screening or mobile blood donation centres tend to need large articulated trucks and a large target audience, so would more commonly be found in busy town centres or supermarket car-parks. The car-park will be suitable for cars, small vans and occasional larger vehicles – like the rubbish collection lorry or a large panel van making deliveries .Please send any comments and further questions to: soscrendon@gmail.com

This page has been produced and edited by the fundraising group for the Phoenix Welling Centre. The Parish Council take no responsibility for its contents.