Published date: 07 October 2019
Reconfiguring and modernising a health centre for a new GP and pharmacy team
West Lancashire CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) approached NHS Property Services (NHSPS) with the need to relocate a nearby GP practice and pharmacy advice team, which could potentially be accommodated in the existing NHSPS-owned Burscough Health Centre.
However, to accommodate this GP the building would need to be significantly reconfigured. The building would also benefit from modernisation to deliver optimum patient care.
We led an options appraisal, assessing the relative strengths and challenges of finding an alternative location for this GP versus reconfiguring and rationalising this health centre. It was decided that the latter option would not only be the most cost-effective solution but help to deliver on wider NHS ambitions of consolidating health services into community hubs, and better use the space already within the NHS estate.
Rather than expanding the site’s footprint, the NHSPS construction team found ways to better use the existing space, for example splitting up larger rooms, and moving the office and admin rooms to the first floor to free up space for key patient-facing services.
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The refurbishment of Burscough Health Centre has increased the clinical space from 15 to 19 rooms, better using the space to accommodate the three GPs and a range of other health and community services, serving circa 12,600 patients. The reconfiguration has enabled a modernisation and enhancement of the centre (e.g. clearing all backlog maintenance and bringing all clinical rooms up to CQC compliance standards) and has improved the utilisation of the building, reducing void space.
