Why have plans to create five 'GP hubs' in Sheffield been watered down?

Dear readers — welcome to this week’s Tribune briefing. It’s the last day of July and we’ve had a great month, adding 78 new members and 534 new readers on our free mailing list.

Before we get on with today’s briefing, we want to get your help with something. A huge part of our success over the last two years has been based on you, our readers and members, spreading the word among friends and colleagues and persuading them to give us a go. Now we’re launching a new tool for referral rewards, which will allow us to give you little thank-you presents for the people you sign up. The rewards include a month of free Tribune membership, a sustainable Tribune tote bag, and for the super-referrers, coffee and cake with the Tribune team. There is also a live leaderboard on our site (it will start to populate as the referrals flood in) so you can get some public adulation for your help in growing our audience.

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2. Get the rewards. When more friends use your referral link to subscribe (free or paid), you’ll receive these rewards to thank you for your help.

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So please get sharing — and thank you for helping get the word out about us. We couldn’t do it without you.

They say never look a gift horse in the mouth — but have a group of GPs in Sheffield done exactly that? Today, our big story looks at a grand £37 million plan to give doctors working in some of the most deprived parts of Sheffield brand new, purpose-built homes. The vision for these “GP hubs” has changed a lot since they were first announced a year ago — and the original deadline to finish building them was this December — so what’s been happening since?

As well as that we have a beautiful stone-built end terrace in Loxley, a nice piece about a much-loved Sheffield vintage store, and the Abbeydale Road Beer Festival starts on Thursday.

Want to make your home greener?

From today’s sponsor: With energy bills skyrocketing, many of us have been wondering about eco options like solar panels, batteries and heat pumps. But will those investments be worth it, and how much will they contribute to saving the planet? That’s where MakeMyHouseGreen comes in — a brilliant tool that lets you put in your postcode in order to see the impact of different green products on your wallet and your carbon footprint. The site is run by a Tribune member, and its sophisticated model uses solar intensity data for your postcode and combines this with property and product data to model your savings with 96% accuracy. It’s free to use — and so are the consultation calls with the company’s green energy gurus. Click here now to try it out now.

If you would like to support The Tribune’s journalism by sponsoring one of our newsletters and reaching our audience of 17,151 Sheffielders, please get in touch.

Catch up and coming up

For our weekend read, David Bocking spoke to legendary Sheffield Rambler Terry Howard about his amazing life, moorland freedom — and him looking like the Green Man. You can still read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 1,528 paying members. The first by me included an interview with Catherine Taylor, the author of a new memoir about what it was like to grow up in Sheffield in the 70s and 80s. And the second by Victoria looked in detail at the much-maligned security industry (bouncers to you and me) in Sheffield and spoke to a pioneering firm trying to repair the sector’s image. An extract from that first piece is below.

Many of the iconic symbols that defined Sheffield in the 70s and 80s have now gone, such as the markets, the Hole in the Road and the Eggbox. The general decline of the city centre, which she says even during the recession in the 1980s was thriving, also concerns her. But she does find some things cheering. “I find it fascinating Sheffield has now become this foodie hub,” she tells me. “That’s something I couldn't really conceive of when I was growing up. We went to Uncle Sam’s and had coke floats or Castle Market for broken biscuits.”

This week we’ll send out two more, including a piece by me about why some think we should value our city’s 20th century architecture more, and another by Victoria about the city restaurants that have been given one-star hygiene ratings. To help fund a new way of doing journalism in Sheffield based on subscriptions rather than clickbait and celebrities, please subscribe using the button below. It costs £1.34 a week if you pay for 12 months up front (23p a day).

Editor’s note: Last week The Tribune and our sister titles reached an important milestone on our way to creating a sustainable model for the future of local journalism. As of last Monday, more than 5,000 people now pay for either The Tribune, The Mill (Manchester) and The Post (Liverpool). Considering none of these titles existed before Covid, it’s an amazing success story and proof that people will pay for local news if the quality is good enough. Please become a paying member today.

The big picture: Catch the sun 🌄

Thanks to Rob Dinwoodie on Instagram for letting us use this stunning photo of people watching the sunset (if you can’t see them, zoom in, they are there!) in the Peak District last week. The shot was taken from Curbar Edge and shows the distinctive copse at the top of Minninglow on the ridge in the far distance.

This week’s weather 🌦

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say this week will bring another low pressure onslaught with showers and longer spells of rain alternating with brief drier and brighter periods.

Monday ☂️ Half-hearted rain, half-hearted sun, so it looks rather cloudy and damp with temperatures a rather disappointing 18°C.

Tuesday 🌦 A half decent chance of getting away with a fine start to August, with brighter skies and well-scattered showers. Warmer with highs a mighty 20°C.

Wednesday 🌦 Likely to be a very wet start, with rain clearing to blustery heavy and possibly thundery showers. Breezy with highs of 18°C.

Thursday 🌦 Cooler winds from the northwest as the low clears into the North Sea, leaving us in a bright but showery pattern with highs of 19°C.

Friday 🌥 Not a whole lot of change, though the UKV model indicates fewer showers overall. Still cool, if bright for many areas, with highs of 19°C.

Outlook: The cool theme continues into the weekend with high pressure building in the Atlantic and a couple of shallower lows not far from the UK, bringing mixed weather.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The big story: Why have plans to create five 'GP hubs' in Sheffield been watered down?

Top line: In March last year, Sheffield was given £37m by the government to build new premises for existing GP practices in some of the city’s most deprived areas. The council and the local NHS originally planned to build five “GP hubs” to replace up to 15 surgeries; now they’re building three to replace just seven. What’s happening?

The plans: The GP practices will move into three new buildings, all two to three storeys tall, which will also house other public services. Practices sharing the same building are not merging, and will continue to maintain separate patient lists. 

• “Foundry Hub 1” on Spital Street, Burngreave, will replace Burngreave Surgery and Sheffield Medical Centre.
• “Foundry Hub 2” on Rushby Street, Grimesthorpe, will replace Page Hall Medical Centre and Upwell Street Surgery.
• “SAPA Hub 2” at the junction of Wordsworth Avenue and Buchanan Road, in Parson Cross, will replace Margetson Surgery, Buchanan Road Surgery and The Healthcare Surgery.

The need for new hubs: The local NHS is keen to emphasise that this plan is not just about “bricks and mortar” but about seizing “an opportunity to provide services in a better way”. That said, there are a number of bricks and mortar reasons for getting GPs to move.

• Of 105 GP practices in Sheffield, only 19 have interiors larger than 800m2, the minimum size for wrap-around services to be considered “viable”. 
• All of these surgeries have already been expanded over the past 20 years by adding permanent or temporary buildings, often on their car parks.
• To make matters worse, Sheffield’s population is only getting bigger. Based on the council’s projections for new housing, the three areas due to receive new hubs might see a collective addition of 20,500 patients in the next 20 years.

What’s changed? Originally, there were tentative plans for five hubs: two in the Burngreave, Pitsmoor, Firvale and Page Hall area; two in the Shiregreen, Firth Park, Southey Green and Parson Cross area; and one in the city centre. 

Initially, it appeared that the city centre hub had fallen by the wayside, with previous reports citing the fact that the NHS had only applied for funding for Firth Park, Burngreave, Page Hall and Parson Cross. However on 1st August, after the original publication of this newsletter, South Yorkshire NHS revealed that plans were going ahead after all. Two GPs run by Primary Care Sheffield - the City and Mulberry branches - are proposing to relocate to a new site at the former Royal Bank of Scotland building on Church Street.

The second hub planned for the Shiregreen area was abandoned earlier this year. When the Tribune asked why, NHS South Yorkshire responded by saying this hub “ranked the lowest” for levels of support from the public and stakeholders and how much it would increase the distance patients had to travel. Abandoning plans for this hub also meant funding could be reallocated to support the increased cost of other schemes due largely to “inflationary factors”.

When the plans for five hubs were first floated, 15 practices had expressed interest, a figure that has gradually reduced to just seven. The most common reason cited by surgeries was their wish to “minimise the impact on their patients due to distance and accessibility”. 

The deadline: The government originally gave a deadline of December 2023 for “completion of all construction”, after which any remaining funding must be returned. Previously, reports prepared for councillors stated that given the “tight funding timescales”, the process of applying for planning permission would have to begin in early September 2022. However, plans for all three hubs were only submitted in June and July of this year. 

When contacted for comment by the Tribune, NHS South Yorkshire revealed that this deadline has now been extended “to recognise not only delays resulting from the recent pandemic but also significant inflationary pressures and the complexity of the process to bring proposals to completion”. NHS South Yorkshire is working to a revised timeline agreed with NHS England and aims to see the new hubs completed by January 2025.

Our take: As stated in a report about the project, there are “mixed feelings” about whether these plans are the right way forward. The average travel time for patients from their home to their GP will increase, albeit only by a few minutes, but councillors have pointed out this could pose a significant barrier for the elderly or vulnerable. 

However, Sheffield has been handed a significant chunk of government funding which, if the plans don’t go ahead, will only be spent elsewhere. In the current nationwide squeeze on public sector funding, for local health bosses, the money must have seemed like a gift they’d be foolish to turn down.

Our media picks 🎧

Sisters of man who killed parents says mental health services are 'broken' 🏥 A Sheffield man who killed both his parents was failed by mental health services, his sisters have said. Sally and Lucie Andrews told a sentencing hearing for Duncan Andrews that their parents Bryan and Mary could still be alive if their brother had been properly diagnosed and treated for his mental health problems. To read our piece about mental health services, click here.

Which local authorities in England have introduced low-emission zones? 🚗 An good bit of analysis in The Guardian looking low-emission zones in the UK. Only eight cities in England currently have clean air zones despite 37 local authorities being directed to take action in 2018. As of March last year, at least 320 zones have been introduced across the UK and Europe while 507 are expected by 2025. A High Court challenge against London’s ULEZ failed last week.

How Sheffield's music scene found a home in one vintage store community 👗 Far Out magazine has an interesting if overwritten piece about Freshmans Vintage Store on Carver Street. The shop is the longest-running thrift shop in Sheffield and over the decades has played a key role in the city’s music scene. However, current owner Louisa Froggatt has just taken the difficult decision to close the much-loved store down, 19 years after taking it on.

Home of the week 🏡

This beautiful three-bedroom Loxley end-terrace dates from the early 1900s, has a large front and back garden, and superb views over the valley. It is on the market for £350,000.

Things to do 📆

Beer 🍻 Taking place at 12 venues including The Broadfield Hotel, Two Thirds and The Picture House Social, this Thursday, 3 August sees the start of the Abbeydale Road Beer Festival. Featured breweries across the four days of the event include Triple Point, SALT, Vocation, Kirkstall, Northern Monk, Abbeydale, North Brewing, Heist, Fuggle Bunny, Thornbridge, and Kelham Island Brewery. The festival will run until Sunday, 6 August.

Nature 🦋 On Tuesday, 1 August, join Alistair McLean, curator of natural sciences at Sheffield Museums, for a visit to Netherwood Country Park to learn how to identify and search for dragonflies. Netherwood is close to a real dragonfly hotspot, the RSPB reserve at Old Moor. The ground is quite flat, but rough, so attendees are advised to wear sensible shoes. The free two-hour tour (11am-1pm) meets at the car park on Bradbury Balk Lane.

Cinema 🍿 At Owlerton Stadium on Wednesday and Thursday this week, two huge films will be shown on an outdoor cinema in the centre of the track. On Wednesday, 2 August there will be a special sing-along showing of the Hugh Jackman classic The Greatest Showman, while on Thursday, 3 August it will be the turn of Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. Both showings will start at 9.30pm and tickets are priced £15.50 (£9.50 for the under 12s).