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Councillors have rubber-stamped plans to merge and replace a number of GP medical centres in Doncaster at a cost of more than £9 million.

A scheme in Bentley will merge the Don Valley Healthcare and the Ransome practices into a brand new facility consisting two and a half floors.

The facility will be developed on the existing Bentley library site at a cost of around £5.63 million and will accommodate a combined list of 21,000 patients.

This development will require the relocation of the library service and the demolition of the existing building.

The new GP hub will be built where the current Bentley Library sits. The library is being knocked down and relocated at Bentley Pavillion.

It is proposed that the project be delivered by NHS England and the council will be the building owner and landlord.

Don Valley Healthcare and the Ransome Practice will each take a lease with DMBC.

A new medical centre is also planned for Rossington but council bosses say this is at an ‘earlier stage of project development’ and that ‘not much information is known at this stage’.

The council will become owner of the medical hub buildings and will be responsible for all future on-going building management functions and costs. These costs will be passed onto the tenants of the new buildings.

Council bosses said Bentley Pavilion will be the location for the library. Initial consultation with the occupiers of the Pavilion ‘provoked an enthusiastic response’ with the prospect of a community library being viewed as a ‘positive opportunity to build upon the existing offer’from the building.

The Rossington project has been included the initial report to councillors to gain approval to allocating initial funding of £3 million.

The Rossington Hub is expected to mirror the Bentley scheme and ‘may involve the council having to purchase a construction site’.

The site purchase would be subject to a separate decision.

Gillian Fairbrother, property manager at Doncaster Council, said: “The development of the proposed GP hubs will improve the range and quality of services, clinical and nonclinical.

“The co-location of two practices on a single site coupled with bookable space for community activities will improve access to services.

“The GP hubs will provide a catalyst for the economic, social and environmental regeneration of both Bentley and Rossington.”

GP surgeries to merge and two new practices planned in Doncaster costing more than £9 million