West Berks hospital renal unit could cost £1.8m

The good news is that most of the money has already been secured, although it’s likely that some public fundraising will be needed.
The Newbury Weekly News exclusively revealed last week that the Newbury and Thatcham Hospital Buildings Trust had applied for permission for a two-storey renal dialysis unit at West Berkshire Community Hospital.
If approved, it will be built in the hospital’s grounds in Rooke’s Way, providing 10 renal stations for the some 20 patients who currently have travel to Reading’s Royal Berkshire Hospital for treatment.
The secretary of the buildings trust, Nick Galbraith, addressed Newbury Town Council on Monday evening to seek its support for the plans. He said that although they only had the one estimate of £1.8m for the building and equipment so far, he “envisaged twisting a few arms”.
He said that the buildings trust would be putting £1m into the pot, that they had received a grant from Green-ham Common Trust of £300,000 and that various other undisclosed grants had been received.
However, he added that “a large proportion of the funding would be generated and given by the Newbury and Thatcham Hospital Buildings Trust. We have funding for most of that but we might have to go to the public and ask whether they could make a donation.”
He estimated that the trust would be seeking about £300,000 worth of funding from the public and said that he hoped the unit would change the lives of those “unlucky enough to need dialysis”.
Newbury Town Council planning committee member Tony Stretton (Con, Clay Hill), said that this was another example of residents being able to use their local hospital for their medical needs.
Adrian Edwards (Con, Falkland) said: “It’s going to be a fantastic addition to medical care”, and Liberal Democrat ward member for Pyle Hill, Julian Swift-Hook, added: “It’s a terrible situation if you have to go on dialysis; it really is a burden.
“It is very much to be commended that this is being made available.”
Newbury Town Council unanimously agreed to support the application. The final decision on it will be made by West Berkshire Council by mid-October.