A visit to Shipston’s new medical facility

Chris Howarth reports on the town councillors’ preview of the new medical facility on Stratford Road.

Before going into the facility, we donned our hi-viz jackets and helmets, as it is still a building site. Walking across into the building you can see the glass entrance hall where the main desk and lifts to the upper floors would be. Many of the internal walls and ventilation systems are in place and work is progressing at pace on the internal structure and facilities to ensure that the opening of May 2025 can be achieved.

On the ground floor, there is a wide-open corridor to the glass back of the building, with spaces on either side for use by the Stour Health and Wellbeing Partnership, offering many facilities that the organisation currently offers at the Warm Hub and elsewhere. At the back of the building is space for a café, which it is hoped could also be used for gatherings.

Once up the stairs to the first floor there is a large area of rooms for the clinics being provided by South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust (SWUFT) cited as – audiology, antenatal, postnatal, ear nose and throat (ENT), health visiting, heart failure nurses, gynaecology, obstetrics, ophthalmology, Parkinson’s nurses, physiotherapy and urology. This list is being continually updated.

At the end of the corridor there is currently a large open space where it is hoped that the Medical Centre will be accommodated, pending a lease being signed. This area could accommodate larger patient rooms than those at the Medical Centre to enable the staff to provide extra facilities and the joined-up healthcare with SWUFT that we require and deserve.

All in all, it is a nice facility for the people of Shipston and the surrounding area. However, questions asked about beds were not answered due to the ongoing consultation process, along with the lack of diagnostics such as X-Ray. We were told it is NHS policy to provide diagnostic centres regionally to enable all tests to be done in one place, so all these types of procedures will be done at Stratford or Warwick.

We all look forward to further developments on the site over the next six months, and to this facility being used and appreciated by the people of Shipston and the Stour valley.