Taylor Denning and Russell dental practice is relocating. We have been served notice to leave our current premises by January 2010 giving us insufficient time to wait for the judicial review.
We have submitted an application to build a new surgery at Marlborough Business Park. Our design and access statement can be found on the Kennet District Council Planning website and is registered as k/59712/o. We are looking for support of this application and we hope to be allocated funding to increase our NHS dental provision by taking on more dentists.

Well done for producing an excellent site! It’s particularly useful to have a full list of services that Savernake Hospital provides, there are some services that I had no idea existed, and I work there! It’s also amazing how many different PCTs and organisations there are working from the premises. Perhaps if all of Marlborough read the website I’ll be spared from constantly having to correct patients and visitors from asking if Savernake Hospital is closing down!

Rich – Thanks for comment on “About Savernake” page, you’re right, it’s not clear – have re-written, so take another look when you can.

Dear Friends of Savernake,

This is an excellent website – very professional and informative for the local community. It is such a shame that services are being cut back from Savernake rather than being developed. I am now practising in Cornwall – another very rural area where they still have acute hospital admissions and excellent MIU services in satellite hospitals such as Savernake to prevent long and arduous journeys for problems that can be resolved locally. Continue your fight to save Savernake hospital – it will be worthwhile for the many future generations of the town.

Thank you so much for your help during my training – it has been such a help and is very much appreciated.

Regards,

Tom Hanson

I especially regret and deplore the closure of the Minor Injuries Unit which since moving to Marlborough with a sick husband in 2001, I have used many times often in times of great distress and pain. Three weeks ago my gardener got something in his eye that caused him extreme pain, the surgery could not help and I had no choice but to take him to Great Western Hospital where he was seen immediately. How angry we were that our local MIU had been closed, how fondly we remembered the service and the care we had received at Savernake, and how endless the journey to Swindon felt!

Thank you all for all your hard work for the hospital and for this excellent website.

Camilla Johnson Smith

congratulations to all involved on a clear clean looking professional website. Already the comments show that the site has regular visitors.
Its heartbreaking to hear of the problems local folk have without the MIU

Two of the comments above refer to the closure of the MIU as a sad fact of life. It isn’t – the fight goes on.

I would like to think that The Friends are encouraging the community to make available details of the procedures unavoidable whenever they need the MIU service under the new arrangements imposed by the PCT. Only by comparison between the old and the new can a judgement be made as to the impact of the change on the community.

what a brilliant exebition thanks to all the many hours of hard work put in by val and janet bravo

Many congratulations on finally clearing the last legal obstacle to getting the date for the Judicial Review fixed

I attended all the Pathway to Change meetings held by the PCT to, allegedly, canvas public opinion on possible changes to the health services provided by the PCT in Wiltshire. I do not recall mention of their saying that the Savernake Day Centre and MIU would or even could be closed. I do clearly remember members of the audience stating that there should be reasonable access to medical services for all members of the community. This is not the case for those in the East of the county who have a minor injury. The NHS wiltshire criteria of MIU service within 15 miles is not unreasonable but it does not apply here where a 30-45 minute car journey (on a good day)is necessary to reach a treatment centre. To say that public transport is available from these rural areas is laughable. It is also a misuse of the Emergency services to say that they can be used for minor injuries, a round trip of two hours for a lacerated finger when there is a real accident problem on the M4 is not the way to use an ambulance service. Neither is it good use of resources to drive past the XRay department at Savernake and go on to the busy A&E at Swindon to diagnose a suspect fracture. One facility is being underused, the other clogged up. The sooner Savernake is used as a busy community hospital offering the services needed by the local community and to which they are entitled, and sensible relations with the health service are restored, the better it will be for all.

I am pleased to have found this site. I was admitted to Savernake Hospital on Monday, 12 July 1954 and spent 8 weeks there as a patient. I have never forgotten the staff, the hospital or the treatment I received there.
This is how I came to be a patient at Savernake. The previous day a friend and myself set out from our homes in Walthamstow to cycle the 90 miles to Marlborough which was to be the first overnight stop on a weeks cycling holiday. Having reached Marlborough I went head first over the handlebars of my cycle and finished up on my back in great pain.

The next morning I was still in agony and the warden of the YHA hostel took me to Savernake Hospital in his small car. I was seen straight away and after telling the doctor what had happened x rays showed I had fractured my spine. I was admitted and told I would be spending the next couple of months in bed, flat on my back. I was put into a small side ward with only five beds, it had windows on two sides giving views across to the woods and the car park at the front of the building. All of this was a bit of a shock to a 17 year old Londoner far from home. I remember the ward sister did her best to put me at ease saying the man in the next bed was a Londoner and we could talk cockney to one another.I soon became friends with another young man in the ward named Jim. He was from Birmungham and had been in the area on a TA exercise when he suffered a broken leg. Jim’s leg was in traction.

I soon became familiar with the ward routine which included matrons morning round when she talked to the patients. I reached the conclusion from matrons manner and bearing that she was very much in charge and well respected by staff. I also got to know some of the staff – doctors, nurses and domestics. They were marvellous, nothing was too much trouble for them and patient care came first. I cannot remember the ward sisters name. Sister was in her early 30s and told me she had nursed in the far east towrads the end of the war. She was a model of profesionalism and kind to me. Beryl Horne was the staff nurse – Beryl was from Oxford. Other nurses were Peggy deGama a delightful young lady from Bombay and two young nurses who’s names I cannot remember – one from Swindon the other from Westbury. There was also a middle aged nurse who wore a different style and colour uniform. There were several male nurses who took their turns on the ward. They were Dennis Skuse and Jim Colley plus a middle age, well built man who’s name I cannot remember.

A long term patient in the ward was Don. He was from Nottingham and had been working in the area and lodging at Ogbourne. Don had been knocked off his motorcycle. When Don went home it left Bill and myself as the only long stay patients. While Jim and I had to stay in our beds many other patients came and went. They were short stay who after having their operations and a period of recovery were soon off home. They were all local people and from them I picked up the local new and what was happening in the area. I remember one patient, Norma Heap, who was a one man band running the local electricity, or was it the gas office in Marlborough. Norman was a colourful character who said he lived in a caravan. Norman was well known in Marlborough and he always had lots of visitors. Norman was the only patient I heard complain to matron when she made her morning round. Matron was not pleased at being taken to task in front of her staff and patients. She soon put Norman in his place. There was an engine driver from Swindon and I enjoyed talking about trains with him. Another patient who I cannot forget was an elderly man who rumours said was a sheperd up on the downs.He seemed completly lost and bewildered by the hospital and routine – he hardly said a word to anyone. George Edmonds a young man from Hungerford arrived and went home. George was a cheeky lad and we had many laughs together. Another memorable local character was Percy Flipance, an elderly, ruddy faced man with a mop of whit hair. Percy was a real gentleman. He was the landlord of the ‘French Horn’ pub at Pewsey. Percy took charge of making the evening drinks, usually Ovaltine and he sang the Ovaltinies radio commercial as he served up the drinks.I never took up Percys invitation to visit the French Horn. Another patient owned a garage at Avebury. He said he would give me a set of ESSO road maps if I called into his garage. Another offer I did not take up.

The day came when I was told I had made progress and would be put in a plaster jacket and sent home. My local hospital had been told and they would be contacting me at home. Having been encased in plaster I was disappointed when I was told I would be spending a few more days in bed. The time arrived when I was allowed up and despite being in a heavy, cumbersome plaster jacket I was so pleased to be back on my feet again.

The hospital had by now made arrangements for me to travel home. On a Saturday morning I was a little sad when it came to saying goodbye to the staff and Jim, he was still in traction.A car and escort took me to Savernake Station to catch the morning train to Paddington. At Paddington another car, together with the same escort, took me across London to my home.

All this happened 55 years ago. Still fresh in my memory is the marvellous care and treatment plus the sheer dedication and professionalism of the staff which I expereinced at Savernake all those years ago. My grateful thanks to all of you and Savernake Hospital.

I have always said I will revisit Marlborough and Savernake Hospital, to stroll down memory lane and see at first hand the old cottage hospital. Time is running out so perhaps 2010 will see me there again.

Brian Ward
2 January 2010

I just remember my Grandad Charlie Mansell being looked after so well at Savernake. We were all offered tea, drinks and ice cream during our visits to see him. I was born at Savernake, so have an inseperable bond with the place. I often drive by and think about the old days. I’m 42 now.
Thank you Savernake. Roger Lack