GPs will be ‘overwhelmed’ by new patients if a plan to build 370 new homes in High Wycombe is approved, residents have claimed.

Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes plan to construct the new estate on 22.9 hectares of land at Terriers Farm, off Kingshill Road and the A404 Amersham Road.

The development is set to provide a mix of houses and apartments, ranging from one to five bedrooms, which the applicants say will include first time homes and larger family homes.

However, Buckinghamshire Council has received more than 150 objections to building a new estate next to Terriers Farm, some of which highlighted the potential impact of the new homes on GP surgeries, which are already stretched.

The Holmer Green Village Society has warned of the impact of the new homes on surgeries, citing evidence provided by the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & West Berkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The resident’s association said: “Their objection highlights that the current provision of health care facilities in the area is already under pressure and the extra houses will result in patients that will overwhelm the current doctors at Hazlemere (Roberts Ride) and Hazlemere (Highfield) surgeries.”

In its submission the ICB said it anticipated around 925 new GP patients from the new homes, which would require more consulting rooms, administration rooms, waiting areas and associated parking spaces.

It warned that further development in the northeast of Wycombe, Hazlemere and Holmer Green would ‘create more pressure’ on GP services and ‘put existing patients at risk’ if current practices are unable to cope with any additional workload.

The ICB said that it would seek Section 106 contributions to help support health infrastructure if the development were to go ahead

Section 106 contributions are payments made by developers to mitigate against the impact their new homes will have on local services and are secured by legal agreements with local authorities.

The ICB said estimates that the Terriers Farm development would require an increase in local GP floorspace of 61.4 square metres, with developer contributions of £349,260.

It claimed it had identified either Hazlemere Surgery on Roberts Ride or Highfield Surgery on Highfield Way as two potential surgeries to accommodate this extra floor space.

The 61.4 square metres would be in addition to the 57.4 square metres of extra GP surgery space already specified by the ICB for the approved nearby developments of 259 homes by Bellway and 87 homes by Hawridge Strategic Land.

The total extra treatment space required as specified by the ICB for all three developments is therefore 118.8 square metres.

However, the Holmer Green Village Society has questioned the ICB’s calculations of the extra GP capacity needed saying there was ‘insufficient space to extend the facilities by anything like the 118 square metres stated’.

The society also said that there were no planning applications in place to create extra GP space at the two surgeries identified and that the Hazlemere Surgery already faced issues with parking.

It added: “We are extremely concerned that the impression given by the ICB submission is misleading as it implies that a plan is in place to increase clinical capacity to deal with the increased number of patients resulting from the three developments they have objected to. There is no such viable plan in place.”