The opening of the Devizes Integrated Care Centre, on Marshall Road in Devizes, is imminent, after which activities on the existing hospital site will cease.

According to the Clinical Care Group website (soon to be replaced by the Integrated Care Board site – more money on reorganisations…)

Health care professionals from the four local GP surgeries will provide patients with same day or next day medical care, as well as routine blood tests and clinics for things like asthma and diabetes.

I can see the benefit of bringing facilities together under one roof, but I don’t see, for example, that it is an improvement to move routine blood tests away from GPs. Nor will there be a dentistry service. Because I won’t be able to get routine blood tests done at the GP, my annual check up will now involve two separate visits. The visit to the care Centre, will involve a journey of two miles longer each way, and probably take three times as long since it will take me through the Green. By public transport, it could take up to 40 minutes, although with the limited service through my village that’s pretty theoretical.

Because there will be no Dentistry services, anyone with special needs, such as wheelchair users, will now have to travel to Chippenham Hospital. For me this would be an extra 10 miles each way and a journey time by car of up to 40 minutes, depending on time of day and getting on for two hours by public transport – again, assuming the appointment time is achievable.

I’m not sure what legal duties apply to the NHS to consider issues like this, but we need to start requiring it. If we don’t ‘improved access’ to health care seems likely to be a myth. There has to be serious efforts to improve accessibility, which presumably is what the Bus Service Improvement Plan is supposed to do – except that didn’t get any money…

In practice, I suspect all these reorganisations are not driven by clinical questions, but by the desperate urge of politicians to be seen to be doing something. Unfortunately, the ‘doing’ seems to be more important than the ‘something.’