A growth in demand for hospital care from both North Wiltshire and Swindon patients has led to extension plans at the Great Western Hospital.

The hospital's NHS Foundation Trust has purchased 5.5 hectares of land from housing developers Persimmon Homes and Redrow Thames Valley. The Trust had been able to purchase the land following a successful bid for £30million of government funding in 2018.

The purchase of the land has been managed as part of the Trust’s ‘Way Forward Programme’, under which a series of hospital improvement projects are being taken forward. These projects will enable the relocation of non-acute services to the expansion land, which will facilitate Urgent and Emergency Care (U&EC) capacity expansion in the main hospital, and will include the development of an Integrated Rehabilitation Facility (IRF).

Kevin McNamara, chief executive at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It is important not just for today but for future generations given a growing and aging population.

“We want to use this land to develop health and care facilities on the Great Western Hospital site and now that we will secure the land, our attention and our work turns to securing funds to build and expand our services onto it.”

Further developments will follow over the coming years, and could include a new out-patient and diagnostic facility and a ‘high-tech’ cancer centre which will also sit on the expansion land.