A PLANNED new ‘super-surgery’ in Kidlington could become the new home for the village’s three existing GP practices.

Exeter Surgery, Kidlington and Yarnton Medical Group, and Gosford Hill Medical Centre are in discussions to open a new health centre at Exeter Hall, Oxford Road.

If built, it could include extra clinics, allowing patients to have check-ups and treatment without having to travel to Bicester or Oxford.

The three surgeries are currently preparing a business case to put to the primary care trust, NHS Oxfordshire.

Exeter Surgery practice manager Caroline Jones said: “We would really hope to see something being developed here in the next two or three years, but the PCT would have to agree.

“The surgeries would be on one site, but I would hope we would be able to share some facilities, so there would not be three reception desks or three lots of everything.

“We are looking at something a little bit more shared than that, although the surgeries would remain independent.”

She added: “At the moment, if patients needurology and ultrasound services, they have to go to Oxford or Bicester. We want to be able to provide those nearer to patients’ homes.”

Kidlington Parish Council, which owns the Exeter Hall site, is backing the proposal.

Clerk Trish Redpath said: “If it goes ahead, it will be the sort of place where local people could check in for minor operations. It will be a much more modern health centre.

“We are really keen to see it move forwards, and as landowners, we have been talking to them all for some time. The aim was to have it happen by 2013, but it has gone a little bit beyond that.”

The project’s timescale may depend on how much upheaval is caused by the Government’s proposed health reforms.

Under Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans, primary care trusts are to be abolished, with GPs instead taking on responsibility for commissioning new services.

Mrs Jones said: “We would hope that it would not make any difference, but everything with the future of the NHS is so uncertain at the moment.

“The health needs of the population are still the same, so we would hope that plans to provide more services locally would continue.”