A SUPER surgery including an on site gymnasium for patients could provide a brighter future for healthcare in west Wiltshire.

Doctors in Trowbridge are offering the beleaguered West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) a way forward in the county town. Dr Steve Rowlands from the Bradford Road Medical Centre said: "The best way to predict the future is to create it and I think we have a golden opportunity here to promote the future of healthcare in the town."

Dr Rowlands was speaking at a meeting of Trowbridge Town Council on Tuesday, where he joined forces with Dr Stephen Locke, from Adcroft Medical Centre, to explain the aims of the proposed primary care centre.

The doctors hope to amalgamate the two surgeries on the Adcroft site at Prospect Place and to expand to create a centre offering a dentists' surgery, opticians, advice centre, family planning, and even a gym. Dr Rowlands said: "We have prescriptions which patients cash in at the gym but we don't know how many are doing it.

"If we had a gym on site we could take them by the hand and show them what to do." Doctors would be able to carry out minor operations and blood transfusions and to provide palliative care, speech therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, cardiology tests, ultrasounds, MRI scans and a paediatric service.

There would be a health promotion library with internet access to try to encourage people to do what they can to protect their own health. Facilities could also include a newsagents, coffee shop and a crche for the children of staff members.

The move would solve access problems at the Bradford Road surgery where patients struggle to even get into the car park.

The surgery, which has nearly 10,000 patients, has expanded from a single doctor practicing from his own home to a practice with nine doctors and a new site has been needed for the past 15 years.

The plan has the support of doctors across the town and the facilities at the centre would be available to everyone. Dr Locke said: "It would be available to the whole town, not just our patients. Here is a chance to improve the facilities for Trowbridge man, woman and child."

The capital costs for the project would be generated by the surgeries themselves. Additional funding would them be attracted as the centre takes on some of the burden of work from major hospitals serving the town, in Bath, Bristol and Swindon.

The proposal would mean expansion on to land at the back of the surgery, known as the Hospital Fields, which is used by footballers and Trowbridge Cricket Club, but has long been earmarked for healthcare provision. Dr Locke said: "We have spoken to the club in an unofficial basis and know some negotiations would have to be carried out."

The centre would be next to Trowbridge Hospital, the future of which is uncertain as the PCT is reviewing all services and community hospitals under the Pathways for Change process. The town council previously decided to withdraw from that consultation process but voted on Tuesday to re-engage in consultation and give the super surgery plans their support. The doctors will now put their proposals to the PCT.