ANOTHER £50,000 has been secured in the hope to progress plans to expand Launceston Medical Centre — with the practice’s business manager ‘confident’ the expansion will eventually go ahead.

Last week’s community network meeting in the town’s Guildhall heard from the medical centre’s business manager Peter Harper, who gave an update on the situation — and said he had to ‘throw his toys out of the pram’ to try and move forward with the plans.

The centre has secured planning permission and NHS funding in principle to expand, but it has been having to work with two separate parts of the NHS — NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group (Kernow CCG) and NHS Property Services — to discuss the building and the sale of the required land.

Mr Harper said they recently found out they were being passed from Kernow CCG to a firm of consultants, to enable a due diligence process to be carried out.

Mr Harper said: “I threw my toys out of the pram. We got to have a meeting in Saltash where NHS Kernow are based. We had that meeting in February.

“It was agreed at that meeting the partners who own the surgery, we have to have some sort of agreement from NHS England before millions of pounds are spent on the property.

“As a rough calculation, just to start the process was about another £50,000 worth of expenditure. During the course of the meeting we managed to secure another £50,000 worth of funding. This money is being used for this due diligence process.”

He said there was another meeting last month with architects, mechanical, electrical engineers and surveyors, adding: “They said this is what we need to do to get through the due diligence process. Progress has been made in that respect. It has been as frustrating as ever but we are progressing that.”

The practice awaits the publication in April of ‘premises costs directions’, that Mr Harper said will ‘determine how much funding support NHS will give to the practice towards the building’.

The land is owned by NHS Property Services, which has too appointed consultants to discuss the sale of the land. Mr Harper said they have ‘delved deeply’ into the history of the land as part of the centre’s conversations with consultants.

He added: “If the land side does not progress significantly within the next few weeks I shall have another throw my toys out of the pram and bang on the table. We can only do so much. After four or five years of doing this it does get quite frustrating.

“I’m really still very positive. NHS have committed over £100,000 so far to the project. I’m sure it will go ahead. I’m totally confident it will. The frustration continues I’m afraid.”

Liberal Democrat Cornwall Councillor for Launceston South, Jade Farrington, said: “I would like to thank Peter for his remarkable perseverance dealing with this. If it wasn’t for you spearheading it, it would be nowhere.”