New Trowbridge health centre could open in April
It will provide a minor injuries unit - easing pressure on GPs and Emergency Departments
A new community health facility in Trowbridge will open in the Spring, bringing services including a minor injuries unit closer to the people who need them, councillors have been told.
Members of Wiltshire Council’s Health Select Committee were given an update on the progress of Trowbridge Integrated Care Centre by Caroline Holmes, of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (ICB).
She told councillors “it’s coming along really well,” and told the committee that the ICB was confident of an April opening date, “which is really exciting,” – although she could not give an exact date.
And she called the facility “a flagship approach to community health.”
The new £16 million health and care facility will replace the former community hospital.
There will be a gap of just one day whilst services are moved from the dated community hospital to the new facility on Hammersmith Fields, just off Seymour Road, the committee was told.
The new facility will be similar in build to the Integrated Care Board’s state-of-the-art Devizes Health Centre.
The aim of the new facility is to bring services, including an 8am to 8pm minor injuries unit, closer to users – and taking pressure away from GP surgeries and saving patients a journey to Bath’s Royal United Hospital, the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, or Salisbury Hospital.
It will improve access for 35,000 same-day urgent care patients a year.
The facility has space outside for mobile diagnostic units. X-ray and ultrasound facilities will be relocated from the community hospital to the TICC.
However, the new facility will not cater for patients who need overnight care.
Neither will it see a return of maternity services – expectant mums will still have to travel to Chippenham or Frome.
She said that once the new facility was up and running, the former community hospital site – which includes a Grade II listed Victorian building – would be redeveloped.
Wiltshire Council has made a £3 million contribution to the scheme from the Wiltshire Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which local authorities request from new developments to help fund other projects.