9:58am Thursday 12th November 2009
By Simon Crump
THE site of Moreton’s new hospital has been announced - it will be built next to Fosseway Garden Centre on the A429 Stow Road.
The National Health Service, in Gloucestershire, has announced the “health and social care campus” will be built on the site that was among three it was considering in partnership with local general practitioners.
NHS Gloucestershire has now rejected the two other sites at the Fire Service College on London Road and on the opposite side of the A429 from the garden centre.
The new facility, scheduled for opening in 2012, will include replacements for Moreton’s Mann Cottage and White House doctors’ surgeries.
NHS Gloucestershire will apply to Cotswold District Council for planning permission to start constructing the facility in summer 2010.
The Department of Health has announced funding for the facility that will boast inpatient and outpatient services, a minor injury unit and diagnostic facilities such as x-ray.
Teams of community health and social care staff, operating from the campus, will support patients in their own homes by using new technology such as telecare.
NHS Gloucestershire is also investigating ways of increasing the range of outpatient clinics, offering health and well-being support, providing new day-care procedures and introducing mobile services.
It has not yet decided what to do with Moreton’s existing hospital.
Jan Stubbings, NHS Gloucestershire’s chief executive, said: “This is great news for local patients.”
Fire Service College spokesman, Neil Thompson, confirmed the college’s application to build a healthcare facility and care village on its own premises was still lodged with the council.
He said: “We’re aware of NHS Gloucestershire’s selection of the site.”
Fosseway Garden Centre managing director, Tim Godwin, said the site was probably chosen because it does not flood.
He said: “It’s something that’s much needed and a great facility, literally on our doorstep.”
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