As reported in your July issue of News and Views, planning permission has been granted for the construction of a new and improved doctor’s surgery at Abban Street. Doctors from the Fairfield Road surgery will be taking control of the premises and the Highland Primary NHS trust will be leasing part of the building to utilise the space. Although plans are still at the early stages the idea as David Blair, General Manager with Highland Primary Care NHS Trust, says "What we envisage is a one stop shop."

David added: "We want to concentrate everything in one building, a Doctors Surgery with family planning facilities and community dentists. What we will be doing is replacing what we already have in our own Abban Street premises, moving into more modern and better accommodation and integrating with the GP’s. The GP’s architects are planning the internal layout, we have had input into the design in as much as we have said what we want functionally, from our point of view.” The surgery at Fairfield Road will eventually be moving “lock, stock and barrel”, and according to partner Doctor Ross, “The good news about this move to the Abban Street site is that we will be able to accommodate much more than we are able to at the moment. We will have Health Visitor, Morag, who is currently based up at Hilton, on-site and we will also be able to house the District Nurses, who are based in Southside Road. We will have more room for visiting specialists such as the physiotherapist, psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors. We are also looking at the possibility of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau using the facilities for, say, one session a week and we will possibly liaise with the Social Work departments. The Primary Care Trust have been very supportive and we are keen to work with them through the setting up of NHS dentist surgery rooms within the new premises. The project has had a lot of backing from a number of agencies, Albyn Housing has been really supportive as well as Scottish Homes and the Health Board.” It is hoped that the new premises will be ready to move into sometime near the end of next year. There are still some legal aspects of the move to finalise, as well as other practical issues to be looked into, such as the proposed pedestrian access from Friars Bridge and Gilbert Street. Did you know that the new surgery will be built on what was once Sutherland the Plumbers, and before that the site housed the MacKintosh lemonade factory and, even more interesting, before the lemonade factory it was the site of the St Abban’s Well (which by local consent is why the lemonade was the best in the Highlands!). If any readers have any recollections of the lemonade factory or know of the history surrounding the St Abban’s Well we would love to hear from you. A successful bid has been set up by Inverness Health Co-op at RNI to look at patient based transport issues. The working group, which is due to meet again in December, will discuss setting up a pilot study to identify the needs of daytime transport for patients in Inverness. Anne MacKenzie who initiated the proposal back in August says “There are loads of ideas from leasing a car or a van to utilising vehicles already in circulation, but not being used during the day.” The new initiative will aim to implement a comprehensive transport service for patients in Inverness, and will assist people travelling to and from the many doctor’s surgeries in the town. A great idea, and when the scheme gets off the ground I’m sure it will be well utilised and appreciated by the people of Merkinch.