Relocating and refurbishing office space to enable a more efficient estate

Customers: NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT)

NHSPS representatives: Daniel Burdett, Regional Partnership Director - North West, Mike Hill - Senior Construction Manager, Phil Potter - Senior Transaction Manager

Dearden House, an office building, accommodates three community teams across East Lancashire Hospital Foundation Trust. The property was approximately 50% occupied, cellular in design, and required considerable investment to make it fit for purpose and enable more flexible working.

The costs of upgrading this space, as well as the money wasted on vacant space, were seen as potentially avoidable, and so as part of our Healthy Places programme, NHSPS teams worked through options with the CCG and Trust to explore office space elsewhere in the estate. 

NHSPS identified suitable space that was standing vacant in nearby Haslingden Medical Centre, a modern fit for purpose Health Centre which already houses several community services teams and a GP practice. Although the space required investment to ensure suitable for the teams it was seen as an ideal fit and offered service synergies. 

We invested £100,000 to refurbish this vacant space, creating a welcoming an efficient office facility designed in tandem with the community services who would soon be using it. Upon completion, we supported the relocation of teams to the new space, freeing up Dearden House for disposal. 

The Transactions team commenced the marketing (with agreement from the CCG) whilst the new space was being prepared, to minimise the void holding period post-vacation of Dearden House. Since the relocation (August 2021), the site has now been sold - more than covering the refurbishment costs and generating additional income to reinvest elsewhere in the NHS estate. 

The previously vacant space at Haslingden Medical Centre has now been refurbished to create a welcoming and efficient office facility, spanning two large offices, one smaller office, and two one-to-one / confidential rooms for the community teams to use.

Co-locating services at Haslingden will help offer more joined up health and social care to the 16,800 patients using the centre, with a range of community teams working side by side in this health hub. It also makes more efficient use of the NHS estate, removing 150sqm of vacant space, reducing running costs of £70,000 p/a, and removing backlog maintenance costs at Dearden House totalling 50,000. Consolidating the estate onto a smaller footprint is also environmentally friendly, reducing the NHS estate's carbon footprint. 

The sale of the surplus premises generated additional funds to reinvest in the NHS, whilst allowing the building to remain a source for employment and the expansion of a local business.