ESTATE PLANNING AND STRATEGY
Health Centre in Warrington to deliver new capacity for breast screening services right in the heart of the community – a timely moment as people across the health sector mark Breast Cancer Awareness month. The same month will also see World Mental Health Day – a subject that will only increase in importance after the impacts of the pandemic on loneliness, isolation, and mental stress in communities across the country. The LIFT estate is already helping to tackle this increasing health challenge, with the Gracefield Gardens building in south London, for example, recently benefitting from £2.3 m of investment to help create a new Living Well Network, offering thousands of residents a single access point for mental health services.
The Gracefield Gardens building in Streatham recently benefited from £2.3 m of investment to help create a new Living Well Network, offering thousands of residents a single access point for mental health services.
small to allow workers to adhere to social distancing guidelines, the site teams went to great lengths to identify two workers from the same household ‘bubble’ who could safely work together in the same small area, ensuring that valuable construction time was not lost. Despite the considerable challenges
created by COVID-19, the building was completed on time and on budget, allowing the Tessa Jowell Health Centre to open to patients and NHS staff in May 2020 – a critical moment right at the peak of the first lockdown period. Keeping the delivery of the new facility
on track in the middle of a pandemic was only possible because of the public and private sectors working together – a great example of the importance of partnership working, with the public and private sectors shouldering the challenges and sharing the successes together. It underlines that the private sector has a vital role to play, not only financially, but also because of the experience and expertise it can offer to secure the best possible outcomes for the NHS.
The changing face of the primary care estate For the primary care estate, and LIFT buildings in particular, a further
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consequence of the pandemic was the urgent need to relocate key services out of major hospitals into community-based settings. Clearly, this was a move forced upon us by COVID, and an essential step in helping to reduce the burden on major hospitals at such a critical time – but what was done at great speed and out of necessity has actually helped to change the mindset of how capacity in the primary care estate could be used over the longer term. What we are seeing is that it is now much more acceptable for services traditionally delivered in a hospital to be provided elsewhere; gone are the days where community-based primary health facilities are earmarked for GPs’ surgeries, pharmacies, and little else. The pandemic has shown us the huge advantages of making better use of capacity in the primary care estate, moving a wide range of services out of hospital settings and into community-based facilities.
Shaping a more permanent outlook From a LIFT perspective, some of the temporary changes to our estate during the pandemic are now helping to shape a more permanent outlook, and we are seeing at first hand the changing face of the primary care estate. As an example, in October work will start at the Bath Street
From the moment the pandemic began to gather pace in the spring of 2020, NHS LIFT buildings (and the estates professionals that manage them) were thrust into an ever-changing journey, where the same four walls had to constantly adapt and evolve to offer a lifeline to local communities
102 Health Estate Journal October 2022
Offering alternative birthing options Other examples include the provision of a new midwifery unit and birthing centre at Lowe House Health Centre in St Helens, helping to reduce pressure on local hospitals by offering alternative birthing options for families in the local community; or the Tessa Jowell Health Centre mentioned earlier, where traditional services such as a GPs’ surgery and family services sit alongside state-of- the-art medical facilities such as a renal dialysis unit, cardiology, and respiratory diagnostics. So, from mental health to maternity,
renal dialysis to cancer screening, the face of primary care is changing – and changing for the better. The adaptations and building variations thrust upon us by COVID have led, somewhat unexpectedly, to a shift in mindset about how the primary care estate could and should be used in future. I firmly believe it is a change we should all embrace, and not make the mistake of reverting to the models of old, where rigid lines were drawn between what services should sit in the acute and primary care sectors. Embracing this change could be a
transformative step for the NHS and local communities, but one that will also require a change in mindset in how we operate as health estate professionals; we will need to be more open-minded about what services and facilities can be accommodated in our buildings, and continue to find new and innovative ways to adapt the spaces we manage. Equally, it is not just our own buildings
we should keep an open mind about. While we as healthcare professionals take pride in the quality and variety of services offered in our own buildings, this should not prevent us from being open- minded about whether future healthcare provision could be better served in places and spaces beyond our immediate remit. Instinctively, we always think about using existing NHS estate, but COVID has changed this for the better. The public
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