THE White Horse Health Centre was officially opened last Friday, by retired GP Dr Peter Ager, who is well known to many people in Westbury having practiced in the town for around 30 years. 
The £5.7million facility in Mane Way opened its doors to the public last September, and last Friday doctors, nurses, and members of the local community cheered the official opening of the centre.
Dr Ager was a GP in Westbury from June 1971 to December 2000 and continued as a locum until 2009.
Dr Debbie Beale said, “Dr Ager is very well loved by many people in the town and has looked after generations of our patients over many years. He is now an active member of the League of Friends.
“We are delighted to be able to recognise Dr Ager’s commitment to the people of Westbury and celebrate his distinguished career as a GP in this way. It also gives me great personal pleasure that Dr Ager has agreed to open the health centre as he was my trainer when I first came to Westbury.”
White Horse Health Centre is a purpose-built state of the art building that provides not only GP services but a wide range of services that would normally require patients to visit the hospital in Salisbury or Bath. These services include consultant outpatients, mobile chemotherapy services, X-ray and minor surgery procedures including hernias, vasectomies and hand surgery.
There are also a range of community services based at White Horse Health Centre including health visiting, midwifery and speech therapy.
MedicX Pharmacy have a large facility in the health centre and are open 7 days a week from 7.30am – 10.00pm.
Adam Williams the manager for MedicX Pharmacy said, “We aim to give a first class service for the people of Westbury. We are happy to provide a delivery service for all patients, not just those who are housebound. Since we opened six months ago, we have become very busy and have had some really good feedback from patients.”
Around 100 people attended the official opening including doctors, consultants and senior managers from NHS organisations, Salisbury Hospital and the RUH as well as the mayor, Sue Ezra and members of the Area Board, Patient Participation Group and League of Friends.
Debbie Riddiford, practice manager at the health centre said, “It is very exciting to be able to celebrate the Grand Opening of our Health Centre and to be able to say thank you to all the local people including the Steering Group, the mayor, Town Council and Area Board who have been so supportive in getting us to this point. We are also mindful of the support we have had from our colleagues in NHS organisations who have worked with us to enable the development of local services for the benefit of our patients and for West Wiltshire as a whole.”
