A new £20 million health centre for West Wiltshire could be built in Trowbridge as part of NHS plans to improve services to meet the demands from patients across the area.

The proposed site for the new purpose-built integrated healthcare centre is on Seymour Road, on land next to the existing Trowbridge Community Hospital.

The new facility would replace existing services in Trowbridge Community Hospital and provide additional primary care capacity and enhanced primary care services alongside acute outreach and community services.

The project was allocated funding, subject to the normal business case process, at the end of 2018.

An application for outline planning consent was submitted in the spring of 2020 and outline business case approval was received in November 2020.

Wiltshire Times: The site plan for the proposed £20 million West Wiltshire Health Centre in Trowbridge.

A spokesperson for Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Partnership Integrated Care Board said: “Before the pandemic, the NHS in Wiltshire was given funding to move forward with plans to replace the old community hospital in Trowbridge.

“However, this was based on how care was being provided pre-Covid-19, and those plans are now being revised, with the help of local clinicians, to ensure the changes that have been made to the local health and care system since the pandemic, as well as our plans for the future, are properly reflected.

“We are exploring a range of possible options, all of which will ensure the local community gets a new service that provides value for money, and will share further details in due course.”

The move follows the delay of approval of the full business case for the West Wiltshire Health Centre.

The Department of Health has indicated that the circa £16 million approved at outline business case stage is still available but the current cost for the same scheme has now rocketed to around £20m.

The investment project is being managed by the BSW ICB, and the proposed centre is likely to be similar to the Devizes Health Centre, which opened in February and is one of the region’s first integrated care centres.

The new state-of-the-art facility would deliver enhanced services in an improved clinical setting and would offer locals a wide range of health and wellbeing services under one roof.

It would provide primary care services, such as those traditionally found in GP practices, along with hospital outpatient services, physiotherapy, audiology, blood tests, and mental health support.

Patients of local GP practices would be able to be referred for same or next-day medical care at the new health centre, making it easier for patients to access the care they need locally.

Community services provided by WHC at the Trowbridge Community Hospital would also be delivered, alongside a range of outpatient services provided by the RUH in Bath and some of Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust’s community mental health services.

A spokesperson for WHC, an NHS partnership focused solely on delivering improved community services in Wiltshire, said: “We have a long-term plan for services and know we can only achieve our aims by forming effective partnerships with GPs, primary care, social services, our acute partners, mental health services, voluntary sector organisations and engaging with the people of Wiltshire.”

The WHC partnership was formed in 2016 by the three local Foundation Trusts which serve Wiltshire: the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

It is a member of the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Partnership Integrated Care System, the collective name for all health and care organisations operating in Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire.