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Doctors to picket store in final bid for surgery

Susannah Wright
13/ 3/2008

DOCTORS plan to picket a Tesco store unless the supermarket chain gives concrete assurances it will build a new surgery.

Staff at Kingsway Medical Centre say they are becoming increasingly anxious that the plan will fall apart with just 21 days left for a deal to be agreed between the two parties and the council.

Doctors say they will join patients on a picket line outside the Lane End Road superstore to demonstrate the depth of feeling over the issue among local residents, if suitable assurances over the future of the project are not given.

Tesco agreed to build a new medical centre on nearby Burnage Lane for the practice as part of a deal which allowed it to get planning permission for its Burnage store three years ago.

Senior Tesco figures say they are still committed to the project, but doctors are concerned that with Easter looming, the deadline leaves just 14 working days for the deal to be done. There is a clause in the agreement which would allow Tesco to walk away if they miss the deadline of April 4 by paying a penalty to the council of £607,000. That could mean that the surgery would have to remain in its current premises which doctors say is unsuitable as two of the consulting rooms are upstairs and are not suitable for old or disabled people.

Mike Smith, practice manager at Kingsway Medical Practice, said: "Unless we get a date set to sign a legal contract, then we will be left with little choice but to take this course of action.

"But I genuinely hope it won’t come to a situation where we picket Tesco to make them deliver the legal document.

"We saw a letter in the Reporter rallying people to get placards down there to protest, and it seemed like it might be the way forward so we’ve sounded out patients over it and they are determined that Tesco makes good on its promise."

He added: "Despite assurances from them a week ago that they have ‘every intention’ of building a surgery, our solicitors have not heard from their solicitors for a fortnight.These legal aspects have been outstanding for months now and they need to be sorted. We are still no nearer to finding out when the surgery’s going to built or by who - if at all."

Doctors at the surgery said that they heard from Tesco for the first time in a over a year, on February 29. The last contact they had with the chain was in January last year when the then-corporate affairs manager, Tony Fletcher visited the surgery on Kingsway and told doctors, ‘We owe you a surgery’.

Officials at Manchester City Council say they are hopeful that the deal will go through.

Michael Kelly, a retired management lecturer who has been a patient at the practice for 35 years, has given his backing to the idea of a protest. He said: "The letter Tesco wrote to the practice was far too vague. The staff and the patients don’t really have much confidence."

Mr Kelly, who is also chairman of Manchester Health Watchdog, added: "We want to make it clear to Tesco that we will take whatever lawful action is appropriate to make them do what they promised."

Neil Skitt, a corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said the retailer is still committed to the project. He said: "We are trying to draw everything together as soon as possible. We need to get our legal aspects together."