GUM clinic is relocating from Bury St Edmunds hospital to town centre

A clinic which offers confidential sexual health advice, screening and treatment is being relocated from West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.

The Suffolk Sexual Health Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinic will move to Bloomfield House, in Looms Lane, Bury, from August 1, this year.

Bloomfield House is already used by a number of health services, including Bury’s Community Mental Health Team which operates from 9am-5pm Monday-Friday and Bury’s Reproduction Health Clinic which opens for a total of 11 hours from Monday-Saturday.

Some are concerned a lack of space at Bloomfield House will result in the clinic being unable to offer its full range of services.

But health bosses say the move is only ‘temporary’ while plans for a permanent clinic are finalised, and all the same services will be available.

Mike Passfield, head of iCaSH, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, which runs the clinic, said: “We are moving the GUM clinic in Bury, as the current space at West Suffolk Hospital will no longer be available from the end of July, as the hospital would like to develop the space for something else.

“We have put in place a temporary solution using Blomfield House. This location will have all the facilities in place, including a lab, to deliver the same service as patients would receive at the hospital.

“Clinicians have been involved in the design of this temporary arrangement and also of the new, permanent, city centre clinic in Bury. We are unable to confirm the exact location at this stage until all details are finalised.”

On what will happen to the space currently used by the GUM clinic, a hospital spokeswoman said: “We haven’t made a decision yet and are looking at the options at the moment.”