New health centre to ease hospital pressures

A new £16m community health facility could take pressure off GP surgeries when it opens this spring.

The Trowbridge Integrated Care Centre in Wiltshire would see an 8am to 8pm minor injuries unit created, which would save patients a journey to their doctor or to Bath's Royal United Hospital, the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, or Salisbury Hospital.

Caroline Holmes of the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) recently gave councillors on Wiltshire Council's health select committee an update.

She said the project is "coming along really well," and that the ICB was confident of an April opening, although she could not give an exact date.

The new facility will be similar in build to the ICB's Devizes Health Centre which was opened in 2023.

There will be a gap of just one day whilst services are moved from Trowbridge's dated community hospital to the new facility on Hammersmith Fields, just off Seymour Road, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Holmes also called the facility "a flagship approach to community health."

Th ICB claim the Trowbridge Integrated Care Centre will improve access for 35,000 same-day urgent care patients a year.

However, it will not cater for patients who need overnight care.

Neither will it see a return of maternity services – expectant mums will still have to travel to Chippenham or Frome.

Holmes added that once the new facility was up and running, the former community hospital site – which includes a Grade II-listed Victorian building – would be redeveloped.

Wiltshire Council has made a £3m contribution to the scheme from the Wiltshire Community Infrastructure Levy, which local authorities request from new developments to help fund other projects.

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