\n “I visited the new hospital coming to Basildon town centre at the Eastgate last week \u2014 and it\u2019s brilliant,” said Mr Callaghan.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s going in on the ground floor, first floor, and basement of the old Debenhams building and is set to open this November. Contracts are nearly done \u2014 this is happening.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It will include a brand new GP surgery and will help\u00a0take pressure off Basildon Hospital,\u00a0increase NHS capacity locally, and it will bring more footfall into our town centre \u2014 with patients, visitors, nurses, doctors, and staff using shops, caf\u00e9s and local services every day.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Underway – Mr Callaghan recently took a tour of the under-construction health centre (Image: Gavin Callaghan) Debenhams has been empty in the Eastgate since closing in 2021, and the new mini-hospital has previously been described as offering “24\/7 NHS care”.\n<\/p>\n
\n The health centre is set to feature MRI machines, CT scanners, X-Ray machines and ultrasound equipment.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There\u2019ll also be some fantastic new retail units as part of this redevelopment \u2014 we\u2019ll be announcing some names in the coming weeks,” added Mr Callaghan.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is exactly the kind of common-sense investment Basildon needs: services brought closer to home, pressure taken off our hospital, and our town centre given a much-needed boost.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Basildon is getting better.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Transformation – The new health centre would offer 24\/7 care (Image: Sheppard Robson) Before the opening of the mini-hospital in November, residents can look forward to the launch of a Fun Parx soft play attraction on the top floor of the empty Debenhams.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Last week, Mr Callaghan revealed that the centre would be open in time for the summer holidays and said it would expand the offering for the town’s young residents.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Costing as much as \u00a3600,000 to create,\u00a0the new attraction\u00a0will include features such as a large inflatable play area, traditional soft play space and an obstacle course.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour’s Mr Callaghan visited the former Debenham’s site last week, where the the empty unit’s ground floor, first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-202867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114722109185624796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}