Progress is being made in the battle to save Westbury Hospital for the community as campaigners have set their sights on retaining 30% of the site for health and social care.
The local campaign group’s new target is to save 30% of the hospital site and have it used for accommodation, medical treatment, or therapy for local residents. It is hoped that the facility could provide intermediate care to prevent lengthy trips or stays in hospital.
Erica Watson, founder of campaign group Sensible Thinking on Patients (STOP) said, “The plan is to use the 30% of the development that would normally be reserved for affordable housing into a single health facility.
“Services provided could include accommodation for the frail elderly, a restaurant, a treatment room, a therapy room, and other health/social care spaces which could be used by care agencies and/or supported by other medical services.
“The main objective of the facility would be to help relieve the extreme pressures on acute hospitals (e.g. bed blocking) by providing the intermediate care which is not available at present and which would help ease people back to their own homes when they can leave acute care, but are not well enough to go home.”
Led by town councillor Gordon King, a task group will be formed to produce a health and social care needs assessment for the town. It is hoped that the assessment will persuade authorities to retain part of the site for care.
At a recent Westbury Area Board meeting cllr King said that he could see a ‘semblance of compromise emerging’ over the hospital site, after the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had challenged campaigners to produce the health assessment.
He also said that NHS Property Services – the NHS department responsible for the site – were expected to submit their planning application this month.
Cllr King later told White Horse News, “I think this task group is the most practical, pragmatic solution to the hospital issue. I’ve been working very hard and pro-actively with Wiltshire Council to try and find a solution. I think we can aim to preserve 30% of the site for a single building to house extended care facilities, which will be functional and retain the history of the site.
“People’s outrage about the hospital being sold off is understandable. The facility was a gift to the town in the 1930s before the NHS formed and since then, families have donated a lot of money to the hospital; local people feel like stakeholders.
“If NHS Property Services sell the site to housing developers, none of that money – which could be anything from £2million to £5million – will come back to Westbury, but will go straight into the NHS’s pot.
“We only have two or three months to give a clear picture of the state of need in Westbury which will stand up to heavy scrutiny from Wiltshire Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group,
“It’s going to be difficult and I can’t guarantee it’ll be successful, but I think it’s the best chance we’ve got.”
The task group will be composed of nine members: three Westbury town councillors and the area board manager will work alongside representatives from the White Horse Health Centre, Community Area Partnership, Leighton Recreation Centre, campaign group Sensible Thinking on Patients (STOP), and Wiltshire Council.
Erica Watson of STOP continued, “This will be a major piece of work for the STOP campaign. Unless we can show very clearly that there is a need for a health-related facility in the town, Wiltshire Council’s planning department might approve plans for the sale of the site for residential housing alone. If that happens the hospital, which was donated to the Westbury area and financially supported by local people by donations of well over one million pounds will be lost forever.”
The campaign continues to be supported by Andrew Murrison MP, who met representatives of the NHS Property Agency in the House of Commons to discuss its plans for the old Westbury hospital site.
He then met with the STOP group at the Laverton and said, “I was pleased that the Property Agency undertook to go back to its agent for further investigation into care needs in West Wiltshire that may underpin a fresh look at the planned change of use.
“My view is that there is unmet need and people in Westbury have a strong sense that the site should have a residual care element. It’s worked well at the old hospital site in Bradford on Avon and it can work in Westbury.”
