First outpatients treated at former council offices in Dorchester
South Walks House in Dorchester is being temporarily used for healthcare clinics to help cut waiting lists caused by the pandemic
The first patients have been seen at clinics at Dorset Council's former South Walks House offices in Dorchester.
Dorset health organisations have opened the new temporary Outpatient Assessment Centre.
The centre for rapid access clinics is operating out of the ground floor of the former Dorset Council offices for six months as part of a county-wide effort to tackle NHS waiting lists.
The initiative is being led by Dorset County Hospital in partnership with NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, Dorset HealthCare, LiveWell Dorset and Active Dorset, and brings together a range of outpatient services under one roof in the town centre location.
What are patients being treated for?
Patients are being invited to attend orthopaedic, musculoskeletal and physiotherapy appointments at the centre, and can access a wealth of health and wellbeing information and advice while they are there.
There is also dedicated space for clinicians to conduct virtual appointments with patients through video and telephone calls.
The Dorchester centre is part of Dorset’s wider ‘Think Big’ initiative to help reduce waiting lists and bring diagnostic services closer to the community.
This is one of the first schemes of its kind to get up and running in the country.
A similar scheme in the east of Dorset to create an outpatient assessment clinic in Beales in Poole’s Dolphin Centre will be opening soon.
Councillor Tony Ferrari, Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth, Assets and Property at Dorset Council, said: “We are proud to be working in partnership with the NHS by providing the council-owned South Walks House building to deliver health services for the next few months.
“It’s so important that we work together across the public sector to provide good services and good value to residents. This arrangement with Dorset County Hospital will help to reduce patient waiting lists, and makes good use of a vacant building while we finalise our longer term plans.”
Dorset County Hospital’s Deputy Chief Executive Nick Johnson said: “We are delighted to be working with Dorset Council and our health partners to open this new facility and make such good use of an existing public building.
“This will allow us to see and assess many more patients than is possible in our existing clinics and make significant progress in tackling waiting list backlogs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."
“If this initiative proves successful we would be very keen to continue to run clinics in a town centre location for the convenience of our patients, as well as for the benefit of local businesses by increasing footfall in the high street.
“The Outpatient Assessment Centre was created in a matter of weeks thanks to an amazing team effort from everyone involved, with staff working around the clock to make it happen.
“We would like to thank our suppliers who also pulled out all the stops to meet the tight timescales – including Weymouth based firm Medisave who helped with coordinating the ordering, storage and delivery of essential equipment, and Dorset Office Furniture.”