There is to be an introduction of new services at the White Horse Health Centre and an increased focus on keeping people well and out of hospital.
As part of the new services available an extra X-ray provision and a new ‘leg club’ for older people will be introduced in the new year following a change of ownership.
The ‘leg club’ will take place in a community hall in Westbury and give patients with leg problems the opportunity to receive first class clinical care and also to meet together in a social environment every week.
This model of care has been trialled elsewhere and has been shown to be very successful in helping patients recover from long- term leg problems and also to help with social isolation.
Dr Beale of the practice said, “We have recruited two very experienced nurses to lead this service and we feel that this gives us an opportunity to help our more elderly patients keep well and have a better quality of life.
“We will be looking at all the factors that impact on elderly people including bereavement, being a carer and social isolation and we will be able to help them access services that can make a real difference to their lives.”
Debbie Riddiford, practice manager also explains a change about the ownership of the surgery building, and the fact that this will have no impact on patients. She said, “In order to fund the construction of the new surgery, we set up a limited company to take on the risk of borrowing the large sums of money from the bank that were required to enable the surgery to be built.
“A short time ago, we decided that we were at a point where we needed to concentrate resources and effort on developing new services such as the Older People’s Service. Because of this we took the decision to look for another landlord to take on the ownership of the building and to take the financial risk and expense of the mortgage and other associated costs.
“The costs of servicing the loans and running the building were enormous and if interest rates were to rise, this would have become impossible for us to manage. In the last few weeks our new landlord has decided to sell the building which is likely to be acquired by a medical property fund or some similar organisation which specialises in owning and developing primary care premises across the country. In terms of what this means to the practice, staff and patients, it makes no difference at all. The practice is a separate organisation and has a lease to continue providing services in Westbury for the next 30 years.
“What this situation does help with is that it passes the responsibility of the costs of owning and running such a large building to a large organisation so that the practice can get on with providing healthcare and developing new services for the people of Westbury and surrounding villages.’’
Another new development is that from January, the X-ray service at the health centre will be available for an additional day each week.
Debbie said, “We have been very aware of the difficulties our patients have had getting an X-ray appointment, sometimes having to travel to the RUH for this. This increased service will be great for our patients, and we are grateful to Salisbury Hospital for responding to our patients’ needs by increasing the service in Westbury.”
