£17m health centre planned

Derwentside Primary Care Trust (PCT) has submitted a planning application for permission to pull down the centre in Clifford Road, Stanley, and create a child development and family health centre under one roof.

It had originally planned to provide some services from a new building on the site and some from a new facility on the site of the former bus station, which has been knocked down and is being cleared.

But Derwentside District Council offered instead to sell the Thorneyholme car park site to the trust, enabling all health services in Stanley to be under one roof and nearer the Sure Start building.

Derwentside PCT chief executive Wynn Griffiths said: "We are committed to modernising and improving local health services and looking at ways to ensure the continued development of our health services by listening to the views of our partner organisations and local people.

"We are very excited that the project to develop new facilities for primary care and services for children and young people in the Stanley area is making good progress.

"We want to build a purpose-built facility that will be able to provide a wide range of services to the people of Stanley and plan to invest in the order of £17m in modern facilities to do this."

Services available will include those already offered, such as GP and nursing services, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, family planning, dentistry and hospital outpatient services.

But there will also be extra services, managed by the trust and provided by specialist practitioners, including diabetes clinics, minor surgery, musculo-skeletal services, audiology, outpatient services and occupational therapy.

The trust has submitted a planning application detailing its intentions to Derwentside District Council.

People can express their views on the proposals by writing to planning officer Fiona Clarke at Derwentside District Council, Civic Centre, Medomsley Road, Consett.