The development of two new health centres in Coulsdon and New Addington has been paused due rising costs.

Croydon was awarded £9.7 million by NHS England in 2018 to fund the development of the two proposed healthcare facilities but on Tuesday the chief executive of NHS Croydon said that “the developers have requested further payments, which would increase the cost of the initiative to a cost which is not appropriate or affordable.”

Matthew Kershaw, chief executive of NHS Croydon, told the Scrutiny Health and Social Care Sub-Committee that the development would go ahead by the end of March 2023 and that he “would expect us over the next 6-9 months to be in a position where this is concluded.”

He added: “If it goes longer than that, which it could, we’d have to negotiate with NHS England to extend the funding.” But asked by Adele Benson, Councillor for Addington North, if the scheme could entirely fall through he said: “There is a possibility.” 

Kershaw said that “the costs involved in construction…have gone up” and “it is not a Croydon only issue by any means.”

Gordon Kay from Healthwatch Croydon expressed concerns about how the populations of Coulsdon and New Addington will manage in the meantime without the planned facilities, to which Kershaw responded: “We’ve been doing that for a while, it’s clearly not ideal and the sooner we can get them up and running the better.” 

The new facility proposed for New Addington is a Health and Wellbeing Centre, which would meet the “need for improved and expanded primary and community health facilities” in an area which “exhibits high levels of deprivation and health inequalities in the borough, particularly among children and young people”, according to the update submitted to the committee. 

In Coulsdon, the planned new development would provide a new centre for GP practices and out of hospital clinics which would prevent patients from needing to travel to Croydon University Hospital. 

Kershaw described the scheme as having had “a slightly chequered path thus far.” It was initially between the NHS and Brick by Brick, Croydon council’s property development arm, however when the company collapsed PHP took over the initiative. 

Adele Benson, Councillor for Addington North, asked Kershaw if the scheme could entirely fall through, and he said that “there is a possibility.”