Melksham’s MP, Dr Brian Mathew is calling for urgent investment in Melksham Community Hospital, to improve the local community’s access to healthcare services and renovate the hospital site.
The MP recently met with Sue Harriman, chief executive of the NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), to discuss the hospital and explore ways to improve current services.
“It is vital that we improve health services here in Melksham and right across this constituency. Being a rural area, the distances and driving times that patients face to reach care are a real cause for concern,” the MP said.
“It is disappointing that there are no active plans for expanding services at Melksham hospital at the moment and I have made clear that in the long term this must be a priority.
“I have asked the ICB to provide fuller information on the distances patients are expected to travel, which will hopefully clearly demonstrate the demand and need for improved health services. They committed to doing this along with providing fuller answers to questions I raised on behalf of constituents who have contacted me.”
Melksham Community Hospital no longer has any beds or a minor injuries unit, providing only X-ray, child and adolescent mental health and physiotherapy services.
“We have seen years of hot air from the previous government on investing in new and existing hospitals evidenced by the fact that nothing has been done and nothing is in the pipeline for Melksham Hospital,” explained Brian Mathew. “Once I have further information from the ICB, I will be contacting the Secretary of State for Health to ask him to not repeat those mistakes. I will also be inviting him to visit us here in Melksham to see the situation we currently face.”
The hospital’s remaining ward with beds was shut in 2007 following the closure of the minor-injuries unit in 2002. As a result, thousands of people from Melksham and the surrounding area travel to larger hospitals in Bath, Bristol and Swindon for their appointments each year.
“We need more access to minor injuries units and to see those open for longer hours too,” the MP added.
“I was pleased that the ICB did recognise that, at the very least, Melksham Hospital needs buildings renovated and a plan of how to use the site more cost-effectively without impacting services for patients.”
Pictured: The Melksham Hospital site
