Greenwood Health Centre
Value: £3.4M
Type: Healthcare
Partner: G F Tomlinson
Design and construction of a new single storey health care and wellbeing centre and pharmacy (approx. 1,175m²) with supporting auxiliary spaces, located on the former site of Greenwood Care Home in Burntwood, Staffordshire. The scheme is funded by NHS England’s Estates and Technology Transformation Fund, which aims to improve healthcare services for patients across the country with modernised facilities and technology.
The new single storey centre comprises of 12 consulting rooms, five treatment rooms, a healthcare and phlebotomy room, and a health education space with an adjoining pharmacy unit, a counselling room, waiting area and ancillary spaces, including offices, changing rooms, toilets, plant room, meeting room, kitchen and records storage. The new building was designed to the latest HBN (Health Building Notes) and HTM (Health Technical Guidance). The building is a single storey, flat roof consisting of brick and render and glazed cladding, and single ply membrane roof finish.
Providing a much-needed upgrade to the current healthcare facilities, the centre replaces services provided by the Darwin Medical Practice – located on Hudson Drive approximately 300 meters away from Greenwood House, ensuring improved and accessible facilities for the area.
Landscaping of the site also formed part of the overall project with 61 onsite parking spaces created. We also formed a new site access point to provide improved visibility splays to ensure safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians.
In addition to the GP’s requirements, space provision in the health centre was allocated to other allied health professionals such as advanced nurse practitioners, physiotherapists and mental health therapists. Therefore, during the design development stage, G F Tomlinson’s delivery team worked closely with all stakeholders to determine their specific requirements for the building and these were then accommodated into the final scheme.
Prior to the handover of the scheme, our Contracts Manager organised training for the medical staff and the Facility Manager on the use, maintenance and cleaning of the newly installed plant and equipment so they were able to use the building efficiently from day one. A recording of the training was provided to the health care centre staff for future reference.
The completed project successfully achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating ensuring efficient future energy use of the building.
G F Tomlinson was selected from the Staffordshire County Council Framework and this was a direct award contract based on our previous track record on the framework. The scheme was procured on an amended NEC3 Engineering and construction contract Option A. We received the project designed to RIBA stage 3/4 and oversaw the design to completion, working with the novated design team.
The project is a vital addition to the County’s healthcare portfolio and is part of their strategy for reducing demand on the local hospitals from ageing communities by providing local residents with more facilities and services in a community setting.
Project highlights
- Partnered with Burntwood Foodbank Charity supporting the local Burntwood community
- Excellent community relationships with the team delivering surplus materials to local residents for their DIY projects
- 2 x GFT Apprentices on site full time
“Our patients, as well as the wider community are now getting what they wanted for so long; a modern, spacious and comfortable health centre from which we, their GP practice, will be delivering high quality, responsive and patient centred primary care services”.
Doctor Gerbo Huisman, GP Partner – Darwin Medical Practice