Holbeach development and long term effects on healthcare in South Holland

I am writing this just after the announcement that the application to build  900 new homes on the south western edge of Holbeach. Of these just 300 will be "affordable". Will that be enough? Time will tell.

Whilst it is pleasing to note that the planner will be contributing to a new school and other infrastructure improvements in Holbeach and that it has already been accepted that the Medical care facilities in Holbeach require an overhaul, I hope that the planned new medical centre is built before any significant development on the Manor Farm site begins. Indeed I believe it is right to ask the question whether the new medical centre will be sufficient to cope not only with a 3,000 increase in population that the latest plan means but also has capacity for at least three times the amount as the area west of Holbeach bounded by the A17 and A151 will be an obvious site for future development and clearly there will be some smaller scale development in close by villages over the next 20 years. If a new medical centre is to be built, it must be future proof.

The population of Holbeach Town in 2011 was 7,346 and that of Fleet was 2,136. A total of 9,482. The addition of 900 new homes over a period of time will increase that by a third. Here is another statistic. In 2001 the combined population of Spalding & Holbeach Economic zone was 72,721. This had increased to 84,126 by 2011. An increase of 11,500. The 900 homes proposed for Holbeach combined with long term plans for Spalding will probably mean that by 2031 the population could have increased by a further 10,000 plus. 

If we consider the population of the Boston economic zone, in 2001 it was 68,105 but by 2011 had increased to 77,532. Therefore Spalding & Holbeach are growing faster than Boston and this is probably due to proximity to Peterborough and the A1 as much as any other reason.

Why am I flagging this? It is clear that the resources of Boston Pilgrim Hospital are being increasingly stretched. An increase of 10,000 in Spalding & Holbeach plus the increase that Boston will also see - lets say its also 10,000 will result in a 20,000 total increase from 2011, or more strikingly 40,000 plus from 2001! This represents a 1/3rd overall increase in population from 2001.

The Johnson Community Hospital opened in 2009 already seems incapable of offering much in the way of diagnosis. It has no CT scanning facilities and the blood test facilities are limited. This means that people from Spalding & Holbeach have to travel to Boston for such diagnostic tests. Given that Boston Pilgrim is already showing signs of strain and given that population growth seems to be higher in Spalding & Holbeach, I believe that the time has come to consider whether it is now time to ensure that Johnson Community Hospital has more diagnosis facilities so that the residents of South Holland do not have to undertake the trip up to Boston.