HEALTH bosses have gone back to the drawing board over plans announced last year for a £52 million shake-up of services in north and west Wiltshire.

Last summer it was announced that Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group that a strategic outline case had been approved for a new hospital with in-patient beds and probably a maternity unit, a smaller hospital to provide community healthcare services for outpatients and three urgent care centres.

It was expected that consultation would have taken place early this year and an outline business plan put in place by this summer.

But now the CCG has decided to widen the remit of the plan and look at services provided throughout Wiltshire but not including Swindon. It is understood that the previous plan was hurried to the table as it was thought funding would be available but this stream of finance has been withdrawn.

Wiltshire CCG chairman Richard Sandford-Hill said: "We want to look at all services that are on offer and to make sure that people wherever they live are treated fairly.

"There should be fair access to all services to all patients."

He said the idea of having a main hub for north and west Wiltshire would remain as part of the plan but as under the previous project there are no guarantees about where it would be sited.

He said: "A number of our hospitals such as Chippenham, Melksham, Devizes and Trowbridge are on huge plots and we need to make sure these are being used to their full potential."

It is now expected that the new plans will be discussed this autumn and go out to consultation next year.

Mr Sandford-Hill said plans for a new urgent care centre in Trowbridge would go-ahead whatever the outcome of the new plan and the CCG was also committed to one in Devizes.

He said GPs in Trowbridge were fully behind the plan but discussions were still underway to decide exactly what maternity services would be provided at the new centre.