NEIGHBOURHOOD HEALTH CENTRES


to ensure Centres are delivered on time, within budget and with the desired operational outcomes. A failure to integrate these elements early can result in delays, cost overruns, or underutilised facilities. Integrating multiple providers – including NHS


Tom Howells


Tom Howells is a board director and national head of healthcare at Pulse Consult, where he drives delivery across healthcare capital programmes and critical infrastructure schemes. With cross-sector experience spanning healthcare education, manufacturing, and residential, Tom brings strategic insight and operational rigour to healthcare environments. He has led multimillion- pound projects for Trusts and Integrated Care Boards across the UK, specialising in stakeholder engagement, live environment delivery, and whole-estate resilience planning. Now focused solely on healthcare, Tom has recently transitioned from his role as director overseeing Pulse’s East Midlands hub – delivering over £2.5m in turnover and managing a 20+ strong team. He is passionate about delivering fit-for-purpose healthcare infrastructure that supports NHS staff and improves patient outcomes.


trusts, primary care networks, local authorities, and community providers – adds complexity, making stakeholder engagement and management vital. Effective collaboration ensures that community needs, clinical priorities, and operational requirements are considered holistically. Early and ongoing stakeholder involvement is critical for successful delivery. Facilities must reflect the needs of the communities they serve. Local priorities can be established and a clear consensus and delivery pathway agreed. Without this collaboration, delivery risks becoming bogged down in bureaucracy rather than addressing community needs and supporting the shift from hospital to community and treatment to prevention. Structured engagement models are increasingly being used to coordinate input from multiple providers and maintain momentum across complex programmes. For Neighbourhood Health Centres, this ensures that community needs are central to planning and delivery, with key decision-makers aligned to drive positive patient outcomes. In addition, clear governance and communication plans reduce the risk of conflicting priorities and allow project teams to make timely decisions when challenges arise.


Repurposing existing estate Optimising the use of existing estate is another key factor in the successful rollout of Neighbourhood Health Centres. Repurposing current spaces offers faster, lower- carbon, and better-value solutions than defaulting to new build. This approach can also reduce disruption to local communities and minimise environmental impact by avoiding unnecessary construction. Although this approach can reduce delivery time and costs, it requires careful feasibility assessment and operational modelling from the outset. Factors such as current usage, accessibility, structural suitability, and the potential for digital integration must be evaluated. When undertaken strategically, adapting existing assets supports rapid deployment while aligning with sustainability objectives, NHS estate strategies, and broader net-zero ambitions.


Operational readiness Barriers to successful delivery are not limited to construction. Operational readiness is equally critical. Too often, focus is placed solely on capital delivery, yet the real measure of success is how effectively facilities function once open.


Planning workflows, staff deployment, and clinical


pathways from the outset ensures that Centres support the shift toward community care. Embedding operational readiness throughout the delivery process maximises the impact of services from day one. This includes ensuring IT systems, patient records, and digital booking platforms are fully integrated, staff are trained for new operating models, and patient flow is considered in the design of spaces. Operational readiness also covers risk mitigation, ensuring continuity of care during construction and embedding adaptability to respond to changing demand or community needs over time. Without this focus, Centres risk being underutilised or inefficient, undermining the very purpose of their creation. Assessing operational readiness does not end at completion – post-occupation evaluation is critical to


60 Health Estate Journal June 2026


The exterior of Wood Wharf Health Centre.


ensure that what was planned is performing in practice. The use of a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) – conducted 12 months after completion – will reveal any performance gaps, provide insights and lessons learned to refine operations and future design, as well as sustaining long-term operational effectiveness. While each community has unique needs, fully


bespoke designs for each Centre would slow delivery at a time when demand is high. A repeatable approach allows lessons learned to be embedded across the rollout, ensuring consistent application of best practice. Standardised designs also enable cost efficiencies, reduce design errors and allow for more predictable timelines. At the same time, standardisation must be balanced with


flexibility to accommodate local requirements. Repeatable designs should allow local adaptability, ensuring Neighbourhood Health Centres are delivered efficiently at scale while remaining responsive to the communities they serve. Examples include modular consultation spaces, flexible clinical layouts, and multipurpose rooms that can be repurposed as community needs evolve.


Lessons from the frontline Experience shows that delivering Neighbourhood Health Centres is as much about planning as it is about construction. Centres must be welcoming rather than institutional, while also operating efficiently. This includes intuitive layouts, accessibility, durability, adaptable spaces, staff wellbeing, community trust, and sustainable building solutions.


Small design decisions, such as natural light, acoustic


separation and wayfinding, can have a major impact on patient experience and staff satisfaction. Operationally, easy-to-maintain finishes, energy-efficient systems, and flexible clinical spaces reduce long-term costs and allow Centres to adapt to future health service requirements. Staff engagement and training is equally critical, as motivated and well-prepared teams can maximise the operational effectiveness of the Centres and strengthen community trust in local healthcare provision.


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