PLANS for a state-of-the-art town centre clinic have been scrapped after NHS Warrington overspent its budget by £24 million.

The trust plans to fill the blackhole – initially thought to total £13 million – by pulling the plug on the medical centre intended to replace Garven Place at a cost of £1.4 million a year over 25 years.

When plans for the clinic, on the Warrington Baths site in the town centre, were unveiled in 2008, former NHS Warrington chief executive Andrew Burgess said the build was ‘the single most important construction initiative we will embark on’.

And Mark Beesley, former head of primary care commissioning, said: “Garven Place has served this town well for many years but with the demands of modern day healthcare it has outlived its original purpose.

“We need to redevelop the facility so it can fully respond to the needs of people in the town.”

In a dramatic u-turn, already criticised by opponents, the trust urgently needs to reduce its spending.

Trust chairman John Gartside said: “This was a very difficult decision to have to take after so much hard work on the part of all partners involved in the project.

“The board was aware of the implications for the GP practices due to relocate to the new clinic, for community health services and for town centre regeneration plans.

“However the trust is legally obliged to present balanced accounts every year and there was no prospect of being able to meet the annual costs of the development, to address the deficits held over from last year and still maintain services across the borough.

“Garven Place was a plan A, with no plan B. We recognise the current service levels in this area are not acceptable.

“Work has begun to find solutions for GPs and health services teams who were expecting to see construction work on their new premises.

“We cannot set out options at the moment, because they will be dependent on finding a new, less onerous way of funding the project.”

The new building would have hosted the out-of-hours services that Garven Place currently offers, including district nurses, sexual health services and a pharmacy.

The proposals also included a dental access clinic, carers’ group and a family planning clinic.

Building work was supposed to start last month with the clinic due to open in August 2011.

The fate of the clinic coincided with the introduction of a PCT costcutting policy, agreed by the board last Wednesday, which supports a recovery plan published in response to the deficit.

A number of proposals were submitted to meet a shortfall for 2009/10.

NHS Warrington must now reduce its costs by about 7.5 per cent – £24 million – during 2010/11, on an overall budget of £323 million.

The PCT set a monthly budget of £25.3 million but the average for the 11 months up to February totalled £25.9 million – a £600,000 overspend.

SEVERAL public figures have spoken out after NHS Warrington overspent its budget by £24 million, meaning plans for a modern new clinic were shelved. Brian Morris, branch secretary for public sector union Unison, said: “What the Warrington people will ultimately end up with is a second class, poor quality service, done on the cheap and some services not being provided at all. “This situation has been allowed to escalate by the full board of the Warrington PCT. Questions surely need to be asked on how this deficit has been allowed to accrue over past years. “Some of the non-executive members of the board have backgrounds in accountancy, banking and business. With those backgrounds how could they have let the situation get to the point they now find themselves in?” Warrington Borough Council leader Clr Ian Marks said: “While we are disappointed with this decision, it does not affect our overall plans for this town centre area. “We will of course be considering the long term implications but I can assure residents that we remain committed to this project and will seek out and consider alternative options.” But current Labour leader on the council, Clr Terry O’Neill, said that the announcement had thrown the plans for the town centre regeneration into disarray. He said that it would be a priority for the Labour party should it gain control of the council again .