Published date: 05 January 2021
Refurbishing a health centre to create a modern, efficient and welcoming space
Cramlington Health Centre, Northumberland
Background
Site: NHSPS-owned health centre, heavily utilised by many services and patients.
Customer: NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group, 2 GPs - Forum Family Practice and Cramlington Medical Group, and various other services using the site: District Nurses, Podiatry, Health Visitors.
NHSPS representatives: Steven Morris (Senior Construction Manager), Bernadette Crouch (Facilities Support Assistant), Thomas Britcliffe (Principal Portfolio Optimisation Manager).
Customer feedback
“We are really pleased with the improvement works at Cramlington, this has significantly enhanced the patient and staff environment.”
Jamie Mitchell, Head of Commissioning – Estates and Premises, NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group
The challenge
An area of Cramlington Health Centre had become dated, requiring refurbishment throughout to create a more modern, fit for purpose, and welcoming environment for staff and patients alike.
The building is also extremely busy and as such any works undertaken must not impact on the services provided and that the building must remain open throughout the works.
The solution
Through liaison with the local FM team and our consultants we developed and agreed the scope of the project, investing ~£80,000 to refurbish common areas, clinical rooms and staff toilets.
Works included:
- Toilet refurbishment throughout
- Renew roof covering
- Replace mechanical extract system throughout air intake / extract
- Renew internal fire doors throughout
- Replace existing sinks and wash hand basins in consulting rooms and replacement them with new compliant sinks on IPS panels
- Replacement lighting
- Renew flooring
- Decoration throughout
We worked closely with all stakeholders to scope and confirm the works, and to ascertain how we could undertake the works whilst ensuring the building could remain operational throughout the project. It was agreed that the internal works would be undertaken out of hours, and external works during the normal working day, and so an ongoing shift pattern was established.
The impact
The ~70 staff and 1,000 patients using Cramlington Health Centre weekly now benefit from more modern, efficient and welcoming spaces.
This project also connected to our ‘healthy places’ initiative, where we identify opportunities to improve staff rest and welfare areas for our NHS partners. This is important to maintain and improve their physical and mental wellbeing, in order to continue delivering excellent patient care.
We’ve had great feedback from our post-project survey, with staff agreeing the site is much improved, and the project itself was well organised with minimal disruption.
