A PLANNING application has been submitted for the proposed NHS treatment centre in Devizes.
The centre would be run by a private firm but treat NHS patients who need routine surgery.
It is earmarked on three acres of the nine-acre greenfield site owned by the NHS near Green Lane.
UK Specialist Hospitals has been commissioned by the Department of Health to build and operate the treatment centre, along with four others in the south west.
The Devizes centre would serve patients from across Wiltshire and provide capacity for 6,000 operations a year.
It will have two operating theatres and offer orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, ophthalmic surgery, endoscopy, ear, nose and throat surgery, gynaecology and urology. It would also have x-ray and ultrasound facilities.
If it is approved the centre would be built in sections in a factory and put together on site in Devizes to open by August 2008.
UKSH's agents Atkins say Devizes was chosen because it is central to the county and for patients living within an hour's travelling distance.
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