Alok Sharma, Member of Parliament for Reading West, visited Tilehurst Surgery to officially open the new expansion. The expansion will mean more consulting rooms for patients to meet GPs in and also has meant extending the first floor out over the car park.

The surgery has a long history in Tilehurst, having been founded in 1898 – long before the NHS had even been established. The current premises were erected in 1987, but a significant renovation of the reception area took place in 2013, which Alok was also invited to open. The event was attended by patients, GPs and other staff members who all gave Alok an insight into their work and what the extension would mean for the surgery in the future. The new extension has delivered a new treatment room, two consulting rooms and two multipurpose admin areas, with funding coming from the NHS Estates and Technology Transformation Fund.

The surgery has ten GPs who work alongside nurses, health care assistants, paramedics, pharmacists, administrators, reception and management. The new build extends out over the car park, which was an innovative and cost effective way to expand the surgery without reducing parking space.  

Alok Sharma MP said: “Having formally opened the last significant renovation at the surgery in 2013 I was delighted to be invited back to formally open the new extension. It is great to see the newly creating consulting rooms and office space, leading to a much better experience for both patients and staff. I very much enjoyed talking to the GPs, nurses, paramedics and administrating staff who do such a brilliant job taking care of local people in west Reading.”

Dr Jude Coleman, Lead Partner: “The extension at Tilehurst Surgery has been able to provide further clinical rooms to enable us to expand our workforce with the welcome addition of Pharmacist and Paramedic teams and hope that our patients will benefit as a result.  With the advent of our new Reading West Primary Care Network we plan to use the new premises constructively with more cohesive working in the future. We would like to thank our patients and staff for being so adaptable during the twelve month construction programme.”