DEVIZES' long awaited Care Centre, which aims to provide better healthcare for locals, has got the final go-ahead.

The business case for the £10 million project has now been approved by the Government, ending years of uncertainty, and work is due to start in 2020.

Lavington GP Dr Richard Sandford-Hill, chairman of the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said this week: “It’s great to be able to report that we continue to make progress on the delivery of the Devizes Centre.

“The centre will give the people of Devizes and surrounding areas, access to an expanded range of primary care services from modern, purpose-built premises.

“Patients will be able to see a network of professionals, all working together across the health, social care and voluntary sector spectrum to provide effective and efficient care in the community.

“All being well, we should start work in 2020 and open the new Devizes Integrated Care Centre in late 2021 or early 2022.”

The project also includes 50 homes on the rest of the land in Marshall Road, next to the existing NHS Treatment Centre.

Dr Sandford-Hill said the new building will provide modern, fit-for-purpose healthcare premises for the people of the Devizes community area, as well as 50 new homes, some of which will be reserved for healthcare keyworkers.

Devizes GPs will continue to work from their own surgeries but will also staff the new centre, which will be organised with appointments and not take walk-in patients.

Devizes MP Claire Perry O’Neill has welcomed the sign-off of the deal. She said she had campaigned for the new centre since her election in 2010, and has been closely involved in the project group, helping make the case for funding with health ministers.

She said: “Working with healthcare professionals to improve our local services has been my number one priority since before I was elected and was in fact, the subject of my first ever debate in the House of Commons.

“Whilst some said that I was ‘tilting at windmills’, I was determined to make this happen, and together with many local people.

“I was delighted when NHS Ministers agreed to make funding available for the new Centre and construction is planned to begin next year.”

The MP announced in September that she would not be standing for re-election when a general election is held and in a letter to supporters highlighted the care centre as one of her key projects.

Other groups in the town including Devizes Labour Party and former mayors who have been part of health campaigns have also pushed for the project. Once the new centre is built the site of the old Devizes Community Hospital is likely to be sold.