THE full range of services which will be rolled out at a new community care centre in York has been revealed after the first patients came through the front door.

Acomb Garth Community Care Centre will host a new NHS fertility clinic, dietetic clinics, wound care clinics and pain management clinics in the near future.

There are also plans for a menopause clinic, drop-in sessions for people with dementia and citizens advice support.

A pain management service, which has been running as a pilot service at the Askham Bar care centre, will also move to Acomb as a permanent feature in September.

Professor Mike Holmes, of primary care services provider Nimbuscare, writing in a weekly column for The Press, said it was 'taking a phased approach to launching lots of exciting new services.'

He said the centre had welcomed patients coming for evening and weekend appointments as part of the city’s Improving Access scheme, and had also welcomed its new general manager, Lucy Hakings, to lead some of the work.

"Seeing our new Acomb Garth Community Care Centre come alive with the first patients coming through the front door, has made us very proud of what can be achieved by a community working together," he said.

"This has been our bold vision for some time and this year it has become a reality with the support of so many people in the community.

"We’re really pleased to be supporting GP Practices by providing extra clinical rooms for their patients," he said.

"There is so much going on and I want to thank the team who have been holding these conversations, setting up the projects and making it all come alive.

"There is change and challenge in all parts of the system right now but we are moving towards the challenge collaboratively and trying to do what we can for the population."

He said many of the new services being launched at Acomb Garth and Askham Bar had been designed and developed in partnership with other care provider partners, the local authority, the voluntary sector and local commissioners.

"A number of them are aimed at aiding York’s recovery from the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and others are about taking the pressure of our GP Practices and hospital services," he said.

Meanwhile, he said that as Nimbuscare continued to plan its Covid and Flu vaccination programme, which was likely to start at Askham Bar in September, it now also had a new mobile vaccination van which would be taken out to the community.

"This will help us deliver vital vaccinations to people who can’t come to the centre," he said.