ESTATE PLANNING
Healthy environments that champion local care
Neil Orpwood, associate director – Healthcare, at architecture, landscape, and interior design practice, HLM, argues that healthcare needs to ‘take a more holistic view, creating healthy environments that champion local community care’.
Since the pandemic the pressure on hospitals has been immense, and this has a put the spotlight firmly on hospital programmes and how they’re being used. Now is the time to look more holistically and create healthy environments that champion local community care, helping to take the pressure off hospitals. By better utilising vacant space in town centres for rehabilitation hubs, and promoting the use of hospitals as a last resort, we can ensure that bed spaces are reserved for those most in need. Even before the current pandemic,
town centres were seeing huge reductions in footfall, with the consequential increase in un-let retail units. As each of the lockdowns over the last two years has taken hold, we’ve seen an increased preference for shopping locally (away from the large supermarkets), and this in turn provides the opportunity for healthcare to come to the high street. Rather than making a special trip to
resolve a health issue, providing GP services, and even specialist clinics, on the high street, could make us all more aware of our health before it
The Heart of the City project in Sheffield entails the creation of 1.5 million ft2
of
individually designed and repurposed buildings, surrounded by ‘enlivened streets’ and open public spaces.
becomes a more problematic issue. Beales Department Store in Poole (HEJ - February 2022) is a great example of how well this can work on a large scale,
but this could be just as successful in smaller high street units.
The Concourse scheme at Sheffield University involved the regeneration of a 1970s-designed public open space at the centre of the University’s campus, which has been long underused. Work ‘to bring it back to life as a vibrant, social, and meaningful space’ included the installation of over 3,000 m2
of
new paving, a dynamic lighting scheme, bespoke seating, and seasonal interest through the planting scheme.
‘Health creation’ As designers we have a responsibility to inspire healthy habits through town centre design; we call it ‘health creation’. Creating accessible areas for exercise and play within town centres, and ensuring that facilities are accessible to all, regardless of age or financial situation, are just the start. Links to nature and green space encourage outdoor exercise, and investment in canopies and pavilions to counteract the weather encourage more outdoor interaction. There’s also an opportunity to create new partnerships across towns, with fitness, rehabilitation, and recreation providers, to support town centre health and local businesses, and in fact the Department of Health & Social Care, Natural England, and DEFRA (among others) are 18 months into a two-year, £5.77 m funded programme to test exactly these kinds of opportunities across seven sites throughout England, (including Surrey Heartlands Health &
April 2022 Health Estate Journal 43
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