WESTBURY Town Council will meet with the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in March next year to discuss future healthcare provision in the town.
The meeting follows the announcement in July from the CCG about their strategic plan for health services in West Wiltshire, which failed to mention Westbury, attracting criticism from local health campaigners who felt the town was being ignored.
Mayor of Westbury, cllr Gordon King said, “Over the last decade, Westbury has lost a lot of facilities which have been either closed, removed or in the case of a ‘Campus’ or a ‘Household Recycling Centre’, failed to materialise, whilst vast sums are spent in richer communities.
“We believe that Westbury does not get a fair deal and this health meeting is about understanding why this has happened and making the case for change. First it was the hospital, then they closed and knocked down the health centre, then they moved the doctors’ surgery out of town, then developed a plan to provide extra beds whilst refusing to consider Westbury.
“Routinely ignored by Wiltshire Council and by the CCG, Westbury has a serious deficit. Our community is of an appreciable size in Wiltshire, yet the entire population has to travel for just about anything they need including seeing a doctor or a nurse. This has got to change.”
The meeting is planned to be held on Monday 5th March 2018 and the public are invited to attend.
There was anger in Westbury when the CCG announced in July that its governing body had approved a ‘strategic outline case’ which recommended a way forward for health services in the Melksham, Trowbridge and Chippenham areas of Wiltshire, but not Westbury.
The investment in the other areas would include one community hospital (hub), one community ‘spoke’ and three urgent treatment centres, “alongside development of primary care estate to increase much-needed capacity for GP practices.”
