Scaled-back plans to transform health centre receive a muted welcome
COUNCILLORS have given a muted welcome to long-awaited plans to revive Thornbury Health Centre but say they are “perturbed” they have been scaled down so much. South Gloucestershire Council cabinet endorsed local NHS bosses finalising and submitting detailed proposals to redevelop the former hospital site following 30 years of setbacks and false starts.
But they were told that the long delays and high inflation mean the £14million finally promised by the government for the project in 2023 “may only be sufficient to provide replacement health facilities rather than an expanded range of medical related service”. It is a far cry from previous iterations of the refurbishment of the former Thornbury Hospital when the intention just a few years ago was to provide three GP surgeries, hospital beds, care home beds, extra care, rehabilitation services and retaining an outpatients unit. Now, though, there will be just two GP surgeries – both of which would be existing practices relocating from elsewhere in the town and 75 extra care beds for the elderly. Thornbury Hospital has been empty since shutting in 2019, and the council bought the site from North Bristol NHS Trust in January 2022 to kickstart the redevelopment.
Cllr Tony Williams told the cabinet meeting: “I am most disturbed to see that it has taken so long for us to make improvements to Thornbury Health Centre. Thank goodness we are now able to move it a little bit closer, however, I am still perturbed we are not going to have a full hospital site there that was originally promised and I would urge the cabinet member not to
close this idea of expanding it at a future date.”
Ward councillor and cabinet member for children and young people Cllr Maggie Tyrrell said “We’ve been waiting for progress with this for so many years. It’s very good news that it looks as if we’re finally going to make some progress - not maybe the progress we were hoping for some years ago but the replacement of the health centre is at least an advance and we welcome it very much.”
A public consultation is planned for July, although building work will not start until at least February 2025 after the ICB has submitted the final case to NHS England.