A FIVE year plan on the future of health care in the area is being put together – and you’ve got the chance to find out what it’s all about at a special public meeting this month.
Following the publication of the NHS Five Year Forward View vision and strategy, a five-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan is currently being developed for the Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire area.
And a public meeting has been organised in Melksham to outline the plans and the implications it will have for local health care in the years ahead.
“The plan aims to help meet a number of challenges faced by the NHS including a growing population with more complex needs; increasing demand for services and rising public expectations; the escalating cost of drugs and new medical technology; recruitment and retention of suitably skilled staff; and the considerable pressure on NHS and social care finances,” explained Steve Gray, Melksham Town Council’s town clerk.
“The plan will consider how to drive greater efficiency and improvements in quality across the health and care system and the need to get better at preventing disease, not just treating it, encouraging everyone to take responsibility to manage their own care in these changing and economically challenging times.
“In order to raise the profile of this developing framework and ensure that the Melksham community’s health and social care needs are understood within the context of the plan, the Town Council, with the involvement of Melksham Without Parish Council and the Neighbourhood Plan Health and Well Being Theme Group, has arranged an open public meeting to be held on Thursday 2nd March at 6.30pm at Melksham Assembly Hall.
“The meeting will seek to explain the status of the emerging plan, how it is being developed, the key considerations underpinning it and what it seeks to achieve. It is hoped that the outcomes of the meeting will be focused, helpful and constructive, and will serve to contribute to and support the Sustainability and Transformation Plan through its development and subsequent implementation.
“Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come along to the meeting at the Assembly Hall on 2nd March to find out more about this important health and social care initiative.”
![Melksham Times Past
A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis
The Independent Chapel and Women’s Rights in the 1840s
A document I recently transcribed lists the baptisms performed at the Independent Chapel. This record is especially helpful in that, along with baptisms, a lot of them include birth dates - one of the ways I discover which day someone was born.
The following is taken from a Wiltshire Times article published on 9th November 1878 which reports a speech given during the 100-year services and to celebrate their renovations (what we now know to be the Rachel Fowler Centre).
One speaker, Rev. T. Mann, minister in Trowbridge, talked about the Chapel’s origins when he related how Rev. Honywill came to Melksham and how he’d gone on to remain as the minister for the Independent Chapel for almost 60 years. [Honywill and his family lived on King Street in what we now call “Legion House”.]
Read more on our website, the link is in our bio.](https://scontent-lhr6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.75761-15/505444438_18038424887647822_3264519508333556874_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=aLBu4qWxSc8Q7kNvwHaVKlW&_nc_oc=AdlPbhxQewT_cSiTru31F-5KIjiDsVWMpCZRRI9rD6F5r9thoch559YVoStjbAgUtcg&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr6-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=LXEyVdf4JnNeYoQ52WXzVA&oh=00_AfNKFktSzThG--xszpxiOTO4LXiH0FfuQLjmBatZSq5t_A&oe=68586A4A "Melksham Times Past
A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis
The Independent Chapel and Women’s Rights in the 1840s
A document I recently transcribed lists the baptisms performed at the Independent Chapel. This record is especially helpful in that, along with baptisms, a lot of them include birth dates - one of the ways I discover which day someone was born.
The following is taken from a Wiltshire Times article published on 9th November 1878 which reports a speech given during the 100-year services and to celebrate their renovations (what we now know to be the Rachel Fowler Centre).
One speaker, Rev. T. Mann, minister in Trowbridge, talked about the Chapel’s origins when he related how Rev. Honywill came to Melksham and how he’d gone on to remain as the minister for the Independent Chapel for almost 60 years. [Honywill and his family lived on King Street in what we now call “Legion House”.]
Read more on our website, the link is in our bio.")
