SENSIBLE Thinking on Patients (STOP), the group that tried but failed to save Westbury’s former hospital, has said it will continue to fight for better healthcare in the town, starting with a meeting on 10th February.
Chair of the group, Erica Watson said, “The STOP committee met recently to discuss the way forward for our group since it seems clear that retaining the hospital site solely for a health facility is no longer a viable option.
“We are very disappointed that we have been unable to influence our local decision makers or the Department of Health, even though their own published evidence highlights the acute need for community hospital beds in Wiltshire.
“The recent media coverage regarding many South West hospitals being on high alert with no available beds only reinforces our long standing argument that community hospital beds are always needed.
“All of our group members remain passionate about improving the health and wellbeing of our community and so we plan to evolve into a health & wellbeing group (keeping our name of STOP) which will continue to identify and highlight the gaps in health and social care services, and the acute lack of infrastructure to support more housing for the Westbury area.
“We will regularly publish our findings and copy them to the Clinical Commissioning Group, Wiltshire Council, Healthwatch, NHS England and to our local MP.
“We hope Andrew Murrison MP will speak, at every opportunity, about the lack accessible health and social care and the urgent need for an improved infrastructure in Westbury before more housing and an ever increasing population stretch our already struggling health and education services even further.
“STOP is particularly concerned about the lack of transport for people who have no access to a car and who either have to pay to access vital treatment or miss treatment and the number of in patients waiting for non – acute care in the community.
“We are meeting again on Friday 10th February at 1pm at The Laverton and would welcome interested members of the community to join us and share their experiences of accessing health or social care locally.”
Anyone wishing to attend the meeting or raise other issues with the group should email Erica on ericawatsonuk@hotmail.com
