Yes' to health complex plans (From Witney Gazette)

Yes' to health complex plans

9:00am Saturday 24th March 2007 in Witney By Tim Hughes

HEALTHCARE campaigners are celebrating after plans for a state-of-the-art care home and hospital complex were approved by councillors.

s=8Work on the unique scheme in Chipping Norton is expected to start in October after the plans were given the 'thumbs up' by Oxfordshire County Council.

The development, which will act as a model for the rest of the country, will see the town's existing Castle View care home replaced by a 50-bed home and the existing War Memorial Hospital replaced by a new community health centre.

The residential nursing home, which is part-funded by the county council and the Primary Care Trust, and the new health facilities will both be built on council-owned land at Rockhill Farm.

The decision has been welcomed by campaigners in Chipping Norton, who have long supported the scheme.

Final detailed proposals will go before West Oxfordshire District Council. If, as expected, they are approved, the care home could be completed by October 2008, with work on the whole scheme finished by April 2009.

The present Castle View care home and the hospital will remain open until the new facilities are finished.

When informed of the news, Cannon Stephen Weston, Chairman of Chipping Norton's Healthcare Users' Group (HUG), said: "It will be fantastic for the people of Chipping Norton.

"It will be sad to see the old hospital close, but we know its not viable and is expensive to maintain. The new development will be purpose built on a modern site with car parking."

The development of the care home is part of a modernisation programme designed to bring all the county councils' former care homes - which were transferred to the Oxfordshire Care Partnership in 2001- up to national standards.

The council said the new health facilities would include a new maternity unit and a modern community hospital, with more opportunities for outpatient clinics and therapy services than the existing hospital can provide. There will also be space for visiting clinicians, including GPs and First Aid provision.

It insists the unusual combination of social and health care facilities offers considerable savings, releasing money for other services.

Healthcare campaigners in Chipping Norton are already passing on advice to other communities.