BOSSES from the NHS visited the town centre to receive feedback from staff and patients about innovative community health options.

South Yorkshire became the second place executives visited after the first in Liverpool took place earlier last week.

Leading figures went to both Sheffield and Barnsley last Thursday, exploring the Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) in the Glass Works and discussing plans for the continued development of the council’s ‘Health on the High Street’ initiative.

Executive director of Barnsley Place Health and Adult Social Care, Wendy Lowder, told the Chronicle: “You only need to pop onto social media and you can hear and feel the buzz that people have got around the CDC.

“There’s so many great comments from the public about the quality of support, accessibility, how easy it is if you’re someone who’s neurodiverse or has additional needs.

“So on the back of that buzz from the workforce, the public and obviously seeing the benefits for the town centre, it’s not been very difficult to engage with the hospital about our next chapter.

“This has been a really important step to changing the way in which healthcare can be accessed.

“I call it a win-win-win - it’s a win for the public, a win for the workforce and a win for the council.”

Last year plans to convert part of the Alhambra shopping centre into a new health hub were revealed, with estimates claiming that more than 100,000 patients could be made to use the easily-accessible facility instead of going to hospital.

It comes as part of the wider Health on the High Street scheme which hopes to alleviate pressures on hospitals and prevent a rise in missed appointments that is leading to longer waiting lists for patients.

It is also believed that this unique approach will help increase footfall to the town centre, providing economic benefits following the £220m Glass Works regeneration.

As part of the NHS’s ‘Ten-Year Health Plan’, leaders intend to push more services nationwide into the community to make treatment more accessible and convenient for patients.

New technological advancements will also be utilised to help improve patients’ experience, with a focus on prevention to help people remain healthy without the need for intensive treatment.

As part of the visit to Barnsley, Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS England’s national director of transformation, spoke to staff and received feedback on how facilities like the CDC are working.

“I think the centre here is an example of exactly the type of innovation and development that’s going on in the NHS at the moment,” he added.

“It’s two buses to get to the local hospital and only one to get into the town centre.

“Normally what you have to do is go up to the hospital, try and find parking, you’ve got emergency patients and planned patients - it’s all really busy

“Now you just need one bus, or you can park nearby, come in here and then go and do your shopping.

“Ultimately what we’re trying to do is to enable people to live longer and live better lives.

“Your health doesn’t just depend on your physical health, it depends upon where you live, who you live with, your home and your circumstances.

“So with Health on the High Street it brings all those different elements of it together.

“Nationally we’re very deliberately trying to play more and more CDCs and locations like this and that’s made an enormous difference.”