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Medics to move in to Easton House

Tom Rowley
2/ 4/2008

A HARD-PRESSED medical practice is looking forward to enjoying more space in future.

A partnership between Manor House Surgery and Cohens Pharmacy is to share Easton House — the dilapidated building once home to Victorian grandees — on High Street East in Glossop.

The medical practice and the pharmacy are behind Maken Investments, which has agreed a 95-year lease with building owner High Peak Council.

"We’ve been desperately short of space for a few years and Easton House will be additional space that we need to allow us to expand with the growing population of Glossop," said Sir John Oldham, a partner at the surgery, which is based further along High Street East. The practice also operates another surgery in Hadfield.

Dr Oldham — who was knighted for services to the NHS in 2003 — added: "Our current premises were built to handle 9,000 patients — we now have 13,500.

"Doctors have to ‘hot desk’ at the moment, space is very tight and people have to queue to get into the car park.  The move will also allow us to be able to enhance service development for our patients. We already run services like audiology, echo cardiology, dermatology and ultrasound scans for the wider population of Glossopdale. This move will allow us to move in other directions along different pathways."

Barry Mills, property development manager at Cohens, said it was too early to say whether the chemist’s would be following the GPs’ lead by retaining their premises.

"Sharing Easton House will make things a lot more convenient for patients in having everything done in one location," he added.

Yaser Arshad, manager of the pharmacy, said: "Having the doctor’s and chemist‘s together there will speed up the availability of medication and advice."

With planning permission to be applied for and extensive repairs needed to the vandalised and derelict Georgian building — which dates from the 1820s — both Dr Oldham and Mr Mills reckon it would be at least 12 months before conversion work could begin.