The funding of the Healthy Living Centre will be by a partnership between the NHS and the private sector, national and regional grant awarding organisations and capital raised locally. If we as a community are actively engaged, we will have influence. If we can raise capital we become stakeholders with ownership which will last.
We are not asking for money at this stage.
The initiative is led by a recently formed Community Interest Company called Waveney Healthcare. This has been set up by local doctors and nurses to provide a means of achieving true local ownership of our community care. As a CIC, all its assets ultimately belong to the community, just like a charity, but it is also able to operate in the commercial world under company law; in many ways the best of both worlds.
Southwold GP practice has been integral in setting up this social enterprise company as it believes this to be a way of ensuring high quality local services for the future. The current chairman is Dr Andrew Eastaugh.