25 September 2009
NHSG/143/09
Joint announcement by Maud Village Trust and NHS Grampian
A groundbreaking health and community centre in Aberdeenshire was today officially opened by the Rt Hon Alex Salmond MP.
The Old Mart Community Resource Centre in Maud is run by the local village trust, a charity set up in 2002 to develop the site on behalf of the community. It is funded through a £1.6 million grant from the Scottish Government and £0.5 million from NHS Grampian.
Patrick Buckman is company secretary for the trust. He said: "Since the Community Resource Centre opened we have started to provide the services and care it was designed for. Our well equipped gymnasium is proving very popular amongst the local community. The multi partnership between the NHS, Aberdeenshire Council and the Maud Village Trust is working well and the majority of facilities are in constant use.
"It is early days however and our aim is to expand the services to provide a greater resource for the community and to ensure people are aware of the amenities that are available to them through the Centre."
Dr David Cameron, chairman of NHS Grampian, added: "This landmark development will bring enormous benefits for local patients and staff. The centre is unique in the way it integrates health, social work, and home care services and provides facilities for multiple use by all professions, local community groups and charities.
"The multi agency use and community ownership increases the influence of the population on planning and delivering services in their area. This is very much in line with the thinking of NHS Grampian and Aberdeenshire Community Planning Partnership."
The first phase of the Old Mart site development was a Community Service Centre housing a computer training centre and dial-a-community-bus, and it provided the area with meeting rooms and offices for hire.
The next stage, being opened today, is a multi agency support network of NHS and Council services aimed at benefiting the health and well being of the community.
A range of services are provided from the base. These include health visitors, community nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists, mental health teams, occupational therapy and homecare support, and the Mintlaw GP practice which runs a twice weekly surgery.
The health visiting service runs four baby clinics rotating on a monthly basis with New Pitsligo, New Deer, Strichen and Maud practices. They provide development clinics twice monthly, assessments for 2-4 year olds and baby massage groups.
Podiatry run four sessions per week, plus a home visiting service. They have almost 900 patients on their books.
The physiotherapy department provides two sessions a week, home visiting and has taken on almost 100 new patients since the centre opened.
Aberdeenshire Council staff also use the base, joining Marie Curie and Voluntary Services Aberdeen.
A modern gym has over 280 members from the local community and surrounding areas.
Uniquely, the rooms operate on a hot desk booking system so no one person has exclusive use to any part of the building, freeing up these areas for external and internal users.
The centre was completed in November 2008 and named by children from the local primary school.