Farnworth Super Health Centre could be completed by August 2024

Residents have long been calling for a purpose-built health centre, with some stating services prove difficult to access.

A petition with 3,000 signatures was presented to Bolton Council outlining the need for a health centre.

Now the council and the NHS is drawing up plans for which services will be provided in the centre and both are inviting for expressions for interest

The new centre forms part of the £19m Market Precinct scheme, the new plans include multi-purpose community hub which will include a GP surgery.

The L-shaped single-storey building will also feature a café and place for exercise classes.

Town hall chiefs are seeking ‘expressions of interest’ for the centre.

Outline plans have been drawn up by developers Capital & Centric to provide a 10sqft community hub, which will include central toilets, which is expected to be leased by the council once it is complete.

The council says it has received expressions of interest for the new building, but which are currently confidential.

Farnworth: Petition for health hub backed by Bolton Council

Director for Adult Services at Bolton Council, Rachel Tanner said: “Developers are now at a stage where they need a better understanding to help mitigate their risks of what interested services there will be to influence the design so that a detailed design can progress in March.”

The health and community care centre will be linked with the leisure centre.

Rachel added: “That is fundamental to what we do in terms of preventing ill health and promoting wellbeing.”

The outline plans have been created in a similar way to the recently completed Little Lever build.

Rachel said: “There would be subleases, and depending on the interest and the council, that would cover the costs.”

The issue regarding the need for a super health centre were first raised by Pauline Owen who created the petition.

She previously called for the health centre due to many residents saying they had a “bad experience” travelling to health centres across the north of the borough, due to there only being one in the south of the borough.

The issue was discussed at the recent Health Overview and Adult Social Care Scrutiny.

Committee Chief Executive of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, Fiona Noden, said: “We do have a number of different health centres across the borough that provide different treatment options for our population where the population do have to travel for those different treatments, which is no different from patients have to travel across Greater Manchester for different levels of care.

 “We wouldn’t be able to provide as a health centre every service that the residents within that community need.”

Cllr Sue Haworth said: “Based on testimony, certainly in Farnworth and Kearsley, one of the issues is some of the testimony we have got is that people are having to use two or three buses.

“I am persuaded by some of this testimony in that I know that there is just less car ownership in some parts.”

Cllr Haworth suggested that a project could be the answer to better understand the needs through testimonies of people who “genuinely say I’m getting tired out, I feel like I’m moving around a bit too much”.

She added: “We totally understand why people have to move for say some of the specialist therapy that does go on at that huge centre in Breightmet for example, which is a bit of a journey.

“But things like physio have come up and somebody with a wound dressing.

“I think an answer to this is an actual project.”

 Health centre would be close to the revamped leisure centre

A consultation is expected to be held once the ‘clinical strategies’ have been designed as concerns were also raised by Cllr Nadeem Ayub over whether the residents in Farnworth and Kearsley would be consulted so that the health centre would suit their needs.

He added: “It is ultimately about the public and if the public would be able to use it because we don’t want the building for the sake of having a building or community hub.”

The current date for completely fitting out the community space has been given as August 2024.

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