Children’s Health Centre nears completion

More than two thirds of services at the Children’s Health Centre have been implemented with the third and final phase on track for completion.

Since the inauguration of the centre in July, the provision of children’s mental health services, dental services, specialised GP clinics, nurse practitioner clinics, and community midwifery services have been transferred to the new centre.

These services complement neurodisability assessments by paediatric multi-disciplinary teams, paediatric physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and dietetics and diabetes clinics, which commenced delivery when the centre was inaugurated.

The Primary Care management team are already planning the delivery of the next service, that of the migration of routine GP services for children to the new Centre.

Patients and parents will, therefore, have the choice of attending the Children’s Health Centre for a routine GP appointment or seeing their family GP in the Primary Care Centre.

The Ministry for Health, Care and Justice are also in the latter stages of finalising arrangements for the installation of a lift, adjacent to the stairs leading up to the centre, to provide better access to persons with additional mobility needs.

The lift will be operational at the beginning of November.

Parking spaces will also be made available opposite the entrance to the Centre. The parking will work on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, with up to two-hours free parking for persons attending the Centre. The new facility will be operational in mid-November.

Rose Suissa, Primary Care Services Manager, said: “My team and I have worked incredibly hard to ensure the smooth transfer of services to the new Children’s Centre. It is very exciting to now see the Children’s Health Centre bustling with patients and staff and to watch the project develop and grow. Already, we are looking at the next phase of services and planning to offer routine GP appointments in the very near future.”

The Caretaker Minister for Health Neil Costa said: “The feedback received from the general public and staff alike has been overwhelmingly positive. I felt huge satisfaction and a sense of personal pride to inaugurate, along with the Chief Minister, the modern, dynamic, and first for Gibraltar, Children’s Health Centre.”

“We are now seeing the fruits of over two years of work and planning to fulfil one of this Government’s landmark projects: to provide, for the very first time in Gibraltar, a fully child-friendly environment where our excellent health care professionals can deliver primary and secondary care to a most cherished sector of our community.”