Melksham’s health is back on the agenda at the town council

MELKSHAM Town Council is to reinstate its ‘health working group meetings’ to discuss the town’s pressing “health matters”.

Youth obesity, pressure on services caused by a rising population, and the number of GPs serving the town – which according to cllr Richard Wiltshire is 19 GPs, with only one working full-time – are some of the issues the working group will tackle.

The working group will meet with representatives from Melksham’s GP surgeries, dental practices, care homes, and other practitioners, every six months so councillors can be aware of rising issues in the town and discuss how they can help.

At a town council meeting last month, cllr Wiltshire said, “This is very important for the council to offer assistance to our medical teams – there are lots of issues now like youngsters being overweight and various other issues which the council can contribute quite a lot to helping the medical set-up.

“We also have changes to the number of doctors operating in the town, which some of us may wish to question with the increasing numbers in the town.”

The health working group last met in 2019 when those in attendance were explained the reasons behind the proposed closure of St Damian’s Surgery, which eventually closed this year in March.

“This was an excellent working group, and we had very good dialogues,” said cllr Terri Welch at last month’s meeting.

“If we don’t have any such working group, things can happen that we as a council have no knowledge of. So it will be good to work with the health officers, care homes and other representatives. It would have been very helpful in these present circumstances. I would agree that this is something that is very necessary.”

The reinstated health working group will also invite representatives from Melksham Without Parish Council, Atworth Parish Council and Broughton Gifford Parish Council, which are all covered by healthcare provision in the town.