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Agenda item

Primary Care Complex in Devizes

A presentation from the NHS with a public and answer session.

Minutes:

Reverend Jeff James gave a presentation on plans for a Primary Care Centre in Devizes. The presentation covered the following main points:

·         Plans to reform community services from January 2007

·         Funding of Primary Care Centres

·         Three possible sites identified in Devizes - Southgate House, Green Lane and Quakers Walk

·         NHS Wiltshire endorsement of the Green Lane site in June 2008

·         Changes to the NHS planning context - future spending plans assume no growth in resources in the next three year period

·         Decision to push ahead with plans for Primary Care Centres, with money from efficiency improvements in other budgets

·         More flexible use of buildings

·         Quakers Walk site specifically - St Monica’s Trust had offered NHS Wiltshire a faster solution that looked to be better value for money

·         Two obstacles to the Quakers Walk site remained - financial risks remained unresolved and the site did not meet certain space requirements      

·         All parties had agreed that further progress was not possible on the Quakers Walk proposal

·         NHS Wiltshire’s substantive policy was still to prefer the Green Lane site, however Southgate House remained a possible site  

  

The Chairman pointed out that questions submitted in advance were likely to be less relevant given that St Monica’s Trust had withdrawn their planning application. The presentation was followed by a 1 ¾ hour question and answer session. Issues addressed included the following:

·         Redeveloping Devizes hospital had initially been considered - advised purpose built building would be less expensive and more suitable

·         Suggestion to rebuild on the Devizes hospital site would be considered

·         Purpose of moving GPs - existing GP facilities were not all suitable for now and in the future

·         Concerns over existing premises meeting National Registering Premises standards

·         Belief co-location would enable people to share knowledge and understanding and improve quality of care

·         An interim solution if Primary Care Centre plans could not progress in a suitable timeframe - however the longer plans were postponed, the more remedial work would be needed, making capital investment less likely

·         No plans to close x ray services - Royal United Hospital had given notice they wished to withdraw from Devizes due to internal reasons, urgent conversations were taking place with other providers

·         Savings on running costs from any new build were all committed to the Primary Care Centre model

·         Capital gains had not been factored into any of the options, because the amount that would be realised was not known and the NHS had a rule whereby they must pay a charge to invest in a building (currently equivalent to 8%)  

·         Rural transport issues - a Primary Care Centre could not transform rural transport issues, however centres were considered best for provision of an active core of services where there were enough patients to make a range of services viable

·         Malmesbury as a good working example of a Primary Care Centre - though it had been a single surgery and had a developer prepared to take some of the financial risk 

·         All three GP practices in Devizes were keen to change for the future as the town grows and recognised this was not possible with existing arrangements

·         NHS Wiltshire would look for a development partner with similar characteristics to St Monica’s for the Quakers Walk site, recognising there was less land potentially available

·         The possibility of working with Avon and Wiltshire Mental Healthcare would be considered, though without large scale work, use of the site was unlikely to make sense

·         St John Care Trust had been approached as a potential partner