The following is an update from Caryl Billingham MBE who is the chairman of the recently registered Brackley Community Hospital 2020 Trust; this charity will manage all publicly raised funds and consider applications for capital grants from service providers within the Community Hospital element of the new building.
“The Trust was registered with the Charity Commission in September, and its registered number is 1185445. We have a bank account with Santander; the sort code is 09-02-22 and the account number is 10876497. Donations may be made directly to the account and, for basic rate taxpayers, where possible, with the enhanced value benefit of Gift Aid. Forms for Gift Aid are available online at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/467898/Charity_GAD_Single_Donation.pdf and can be returned to our Treasurer, Paul Bennett. His email address is bennettofevenley@tiscali.co.uk, and please do not hesitate to contact him either by email or by telephone (01280-703904) if you have any queries or require further information.
Our current target is £165,000 which will fund a state-of-the-art digital X-ray machine. Once we have crossed that off our wish list, we can start to aim for an ultrasound scanner as well as for equipment that should enable ophthalmological examinations and treatments within the building. These facilities will not only benefit all the residents of the Brackley GP surgeries who currently have to travel to Oxford, to Northampton, to Milton Keynes, even to Banbury for their appointments; it will also help our carbon footprint.
The new Community Hospital will have 16 intermediate care bedrooms on the second floor, each with its own bathroom. It would be desirable for each room to have, in addition to the essential furniture which the NHS will provide, a television set and a reclining armchair (which would be available for overnight stays by carers or relatives in the event of a patient receiving end-of-life care), and again funds will need to be raised in order to acquire these.
I have been fortunate enough to pay a couple of impromptu visits to the new building and it is much larger than I had expected. Work continues apace with the intention that winter weather should not cause any delays because the walls and roof will be completed before that hits. Update on the building is as follows:
- The building is now surrounded by scaffolding and this will provide safe access for the installation of the external walls of the building, window casements and frames.
- The work on the car park has started, particularly the area closer to the building. Over the next few months more and more vehicles will require access, and, rather than have the ground churned up, it will enable the vehicles to travel on a solid platform.
- A levelling process is almost complete to the left and rear of the building. This gives the opportunity for a level pathway around the building, and it will eliminate the steep incline that was present before.
- The roof is 80% complete and should be finished shortly.
- The room partitions have been installed on the top floor and clearly show the outline of the bedrooms including the en-suite bathrooms. This work is ongoing and moving through the first and ground floor over the next few weeks.
Completion of the building remains on-target for May 2020 and it is anticipated that fitting out should take no more than four to six weeks, so it should be operational by July/August next year. Exciting times! At last.”
