Orpington Health and Wellbeing Centre opened in September 2019 and NHS Open Space has been part of the site from the very beginning, providing a wide range of services to the community due to the site’s flexibility.
NHS Open Space played a key role last year by repurposing two of our rooms on a longer-term basis to accommodate new Covid-19 services, supporting the vaccination programme for the area – building great relationships with NHS Open Space users, and working with local communities and businesses wanting to use the space.
- We currently have 10 rooms on site, ranging from examination and treatment rooms, a large group room and interview space for activities, meetings and work.
- Rooms can be booked on an hourly basis from 08:00 – 20:00, Monday to Saturday.
- 20+ services currently use the spaces including Wren Healthcare and JA Medical.
Meet David Lipscombe, Facilities Coordinator
We have a brilliant team behind NHS Open Space, each bringing a unique set of skills to the programme to improve your experience. We caught up with David, the Facilities Coordinator for Orpington Health and Wellbeing Centre and asked him some questions about his role at NHS Open Space and the programme itself.
What is your role in the NHS Open Space team?
“I started here in August 2019, just before the building opened, and before that I worked across NHSPS buildings across North London, and before NHSPS I worked with University College Hospital in Facilities Management.”
What services are used at Orpington Health and Wellbeing Centre?
We have a wide range of services using our NHS Open Space rooms, at varying capacity, but some examples are JA Medical who are a private medical company currently running vaccination services, Hidden Hearing, and Integrated Occupational Medicine which is a service that provides diving and offshore medicals.”
Have you found that NHS Open Space helps customers using the space?
“Yes definitely, it offers them a more flexible way to use the building if they don’t want a full lease. As the site is still relatively new, not everyone in the area knew it was here at first, so opening the space to services beyond the usual local GP has grown this awareness and usage. We’ve also seen existing services using the rooms in new ways, such as staff from Knoll Medical using one of our group rooms for Pilates sessions, and Bromley Wellbeing using interview rooms for counselling sessions.
As we see Covid-19 restrictions lifting and associated services needing less space, I hope to see more community support services coming into the building, whether that’s counselling services, charities, or local businesses.”
Learn more about NHS Open Space
Through the flexible booking of NHS Open Space, we are offering customers more choice and flexibility, communities a wider range of services, and making more efficient use of the NHS estate.
Learn more about NHS Open Space.
