New £6m early screening unit approved for Woking Community Hospital
Cancer, heart, and stroke patients will have better access to life-saving treatment and spared 30 mile round trips after a new £6 million diagnostics centre was approved for Woking Community Hospital.
The facility, run by Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS, will bring an estimated 30,000 annual patient visits back into the borough, helping to alleviate pressure elsewhere in the system.
The plan was called-in for debate due to concerns over loss of privacy to residents in St Andrew’s Gate – as trees lining the existing car park were to be chopped down to make way for the redesign.
Broadly, the meeting was told, support for the hospital was strong – so long as the new layout did not leave people in the car park with direct views into people’s living rooms and bedrooms.
The plans were given the go-ahead after the developers suggested additional conditions and will return with revisions to tree planting before any work begins.
It means people using the mammography unit, currently disconnected from the main hospital building and situated within the car park will have space to wait indoors.
Helen Archer, speaking on behalf of residents in flats 9 to 24 of St Andrew’s Gate, said: “We really welcome the investment in Woking Community Hospital, as a vital asset to the community, but we have one key area of concern about the western boundary treatment of the car park extension.”
She told the meeting the plans would “result in significant loss of privacy from car park” with the flats on the first and second floors “left exposed”.
She added: “This impacts the privacy of residents including primary living rooms and bedrooms, not just kitchens.”
The trust will now more forward with a new diagnostic centre at the Heathside Road site. Jack Wagstaff, place leader of North West Surrey Alliance said: “This is about bringing quite vital diagnostic capacity to the area.
“The development itself brings MRI scanners, CT scanners, depth, ultrasound scanning equipment directly to the people of Woking.
“These are used in cancer detection, heart disease, stroke, they are literally life saving pieces of equipment.
He added: “The key driver in your likelihood to survive is the speed that is detected and your treatment begins and this is bringing 30,000 additional diagnostic tests directly to the people of Woking.”
The centre is funded by NHS England and will be developed by Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, working in close collaboration with CSH Surrey, primary care, Alliance Medical Ltd and partners operating out of Woking Community Hospital.