HEALTH campaigners were celebrating this week as health bosses confirmed a planning application for an urgent care centre for Devizes will be submitted before Christmas.

It was announced a year ago by Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group that the long-awaited centre would be built in Marshall Road next to NHS treatment centre.

Dr Richard Sandford-Hill senior partner at Market Lavington GP practice, who is on the CCG, told the Gazette this week: "The planning application will go in before Christmas. It might have gone in sooner but we are just ironing out a few details about the size of the land that will be allocated for the centre."

He is keen for urgent care centre to have room to expand in the future. It will be built on a section of a field owned by the NHS while the rest of the land is likely to be sold for houses.

Yesterday Devizes MP Claire Perry said: "We are almost there on the Devizes Urgent Care Centre with the planning application going forward. Having been told so many times that there was no prospect of it and having started campaigning for one back in 2010 I am now confident we will get there. I can't quite believe it."

Devizes Mayor Jane Burton said: "“I am delighted to hear that NHS Property Services are submitting an outline planning application for the Devizes Urgent Care Centre Whilst I recognise that there is still some way to go before the doors open, the submission of a planning application gives me heart that progress is being made towards the delivery of the important health facility we have all be waiting for for such a long time.”

Town councillor Judy Rose said: "I am very pleased at such progress, but as ever, there is still a long way to go, and after decades of disappointment for the community re health provision, I shall rejoice fully, only when I can walk through the doors of the completed and functioning Urgent Care Centre."

Deputy Mayor Nigel Carter said: "This is good news. I look forward to swift progress and access to a facility that will benefit not just Devizes but many of the surrounding parishes too."

Devizes Labour Party which has campaigned for more health services for Devizes for many years also welcomed the news but wanted to make sure the centre would have as much space as possible to expand in the future.

GPs from across Devizes will use the centre for patients that have already been triaged by them or the 111 service. It is expected to open next autumn.

The original thrust of our campaign was that whilst the population of Devizes has increased rapidly over recent years, the health services available locally have decreased. The Devizes Community hospital was one of the earlier casualties,wards being closed including the Maternity Unit, with only the bare bones of a service still remaining. In recent years we have also lost the Clinic in New Park Street to Majestic Wine. We had been told repeatedly over many years that money was the main problem preventing the provision of new health facilities in the town. Before the sale of Devizes Clinic went through, and before the full implementation

of the Health and Social Welfare bill , I spoke to Claire Perry at one of her Coffee with Claire sessions and asked if the money raised on the sale could be kept for Devizes. Claire felt that there was a possibility and said that she would look into it. Sadly of course the sale did not go through in time for the April deadline, so instead of the money staying in Devizes it went into the coffers of NHS Property Services to be given out to wherever in the country there was a need!

We were very pleased when we heard about the Emergency Treatment Centre, as it seemed we would be getting more than the Minor Injuries Unit, which we were campaigning more as a minimum. We were also pleased that there would almost be a return to the way in which the old Cottage Hospital was run, staffed by local doctors, who already knew their patients.

Given that both local and National Health plans include having local hubs, where people can be treated locally at the Unit or by professionals going out to patients homes, it seems to us that it would be a grave error to limit the space available for the unit by selling off the land surrounding it for housing. Indeed it would be ironical, since more houses mean more people and a need for more health provision!

Sue Buxton (Devizes Constituency Labour Party)