A packed Townsend Hall welcomed Dr Jane Gilder for her talk “Shipston as seen from your medical centre.

The Present and the Future”.

Dr Gilder opened her talk by explaining the difficulties that could be experienced in registering with a doctor caused by the ‘postal code lottery’.

With continued reorganisation more would be made of the Ellen Badger Hospital including making it the base for the ‘paramedics’.

A ‘dementia provision’ service was high on the list of priorities for the centre.

The medical centre do operate an ‘out of hours service’ in particular with weekend cover at the Ellen Badger Hospital.

Dr Gilder then posed a question of the meeting.

‘What can the community do to help the medical centre?’ she suggested the following main points.

(1) Work even more in partnership with the medical centre

(2) Help where ever possible with health promotions

(3) Be prepared to defend current services A question followed concerning the additional housing being built and the extra patient base it would create. Dr Gilder assured the questioner that the medical centre will ensure that medical treatment is available to all who register with them.

Health and Wellbeing Park –The current plan, which had been well publicised, for the moment was on hold due to financial constraints.

General questions were asked concerning the district plan and if provision had been made for a new ‘Health and Wellbeing Park’ had been included and what pressure was being brought to bear on the developers of the various new sites to help with the programme.