Published date: 15 April 2020
Recommissioning vacant space at former care home to provide additional capacity during COVID-19
The Dormers, Caterham
Background
Site: Vacant former Care Home buildings owned by Surrey County Council.
Customers/Stakeholders: Surrey County Council (SCC), Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Local GPs, Alliance for Better Care Ltd.
NHSPS representatives: Keith Blundred and wider team (Facilities Management), Ololade Lawal (Property Management, Emma Finegan (Portfolio Optimisation), Maria Shone (Legal)
Customer feedback
“This site will be a great resource in the coming months, and will allow us to limit our practice-based COVID-19 related activity to a minimum.”
Richard Wright, Accountable Clinical Director, North Tandridge Primary Care Network
The challenge
The Dormers was a vacant former Care Home building owned by Surrey County Council.
In March 2020 the local CCG identified it as a potential site to support the Primary Care Network to deliver Clinical Decision Unit (CDU) services for COVID-19 purposes.
As the space was formerly used for care home purposes it required significant upgrading to a clinical standard, with the planning, costing and completion of this fitout all on a tight timescale.
Beyond the refurbishment, the site required additional cleaning and facilities management attention, as it had previously been mothballed for redevelopment, and was not an NHSPS freehold property.
The solution
We worked closely with the CCG to proactively identify the high priority sites and agree a programme of works. When this site was identified, NHSPS had to first take the License on behalf of the Primary Care Network.
Our FM team managed the delivery of all works, involving the refurbishment of five rooms to a clinical standard, and kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Close collaboration across NHSPS teams and our stakeholders enabled us to move at pace, keeping everyone updated on progress and ensuring the works and legal documents would be processed in time.
The impact
In the space of four weeks we have refurbished this office to provide six clinical-standard rooms and bathroom facilities – all compliant for operational use after being vacant for three years.
This provides the Primary Care Network with much-needed capacity for CDU services.
As well as upgrading the premises, we will be providing ongoing Facilities Management support, to keep the building safe and clean.
Learn more about COVID-19 activity
We recommissioned and reconfigured space across our estate during COVID-19 to provide additional capacity for treatment and testing, delivering space for over 1,000 beds.
