In the past, healthcare buildings have been designed for a set purpose and didn’t evolve with communities as health needs changed.
With Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs), we’re moving from single-user buildings to multi-user buildings. This means we need to think about developing NHCs in a different way to get the best use of space and money.
Healthcare planning is essential as part of this process. It puts patients at the heart, aligning clinical demand with space design to guide investment, saving time and money later on.
With this in mind, there’s three key areas that you should consider as you create your estate plans to deliver NHCs:
1) Early engagement with more providers
This is perhaps the biggest shift and the most important. To get funding and approval for an NHC, before any building plans can be developed, you need to agree up front what services will be going into it, how it will be used and the types of multi-use spaces that will be needed.
Commissioners will need to work with a broader range of stakeholders including service providers, local councils, charities and other bodies, as well as the local community. It’s critical to engage these stakeholders early as you’ll need to work closely together and share space as part of the care model.
Lastly, shared, multi‑user buildings are more complicated to run. So stronger governance and clearer arrangements will be needed as part of the early-stage planning process.
2) Flexibility – with purpose
Vacant space has long been a challenge across the NHS estate so it’s important to ensure that space in NHCs can be used in different ways and can also be adapted as healthcare needs change.
They also need to have purpose – you need to be thinking about what services that community will need and how to create environments that support joined up care. Like clinic rooms that can be used by GPs and physiotherapists. And meeting rooms that can be used by social workers and support digital services like virtual wards.
This starts with standardised rooms and protected spaces. You need a range of rooms that can be used as clinical and non-clinical spaces, as well as meeting rooms and multi-disciplinary rooms to support training. It’s about using HBNs in a clever way so that your NHC works effectively as a multi-agency hub.
3) Clarity on role NHC will play within community
In order to get funding, you need to be clear on what you expect an NHC to deliver and how it will change how patients access healthcare.
For example, do you want it to reduce elective admissions? Will services that currently sit within a hospital setting move into the community? Will it improve access for staff and patients?
Having this agreed at an early stage will shape how an NHC is developed and make sure that it’s designed in the right way.
How we can support
Healthcare planning isn’t an afterthought – it’s a key component of the development process that can save time and money.
We can support you to engage stakeholders early on and get the right people around the table. We’ll help you create a clear brief to develop a safe and efficient NHC that meets national standards and weaves in flexibility.
Because we put patients at the heart, we can support service transition while maintaining continuity of care as your NHC is developed.
