Published date: 09 May 2022
£1m refurbishment of health centre to enable relocation of services
Rayner Green Resource Centre, Patrick Stead Hospital, Halesworth
Background
Customers: East Coast Community Healthcare C.I.C and Norfolk and Waveney CCG
NHSPS representatives: Jo Tuck, Oliver Christy, Milan Chadha and Saul Speveck
Architect: LSI Architects
Surveyor: Ingleton Wood
Contractor: Pentaco
Challenge
Patrick Stead Hospital in Halesworth was being underutilised with a significant amount of vacant space which Norfolk and Waveney CCG were unnecessarily paying for, and as an older building, the CCG wanted to provide the local community with a more modern environment for healthcare to improve their patient experience.
Solution
The adjoining Rayner Green building provided the perfect solution for services to be relocated with an extension and some reconfiguration. This would also allow the sale of the Patrick Stead Hospital buildings, with proceeds being reinvested into the health system.
NHS Property Services’ Construction team project managed the refurbishment and extension of Rayner Green. We procured LSI Architects to design the layout of the building and Ingleton Wood managed the mechanical, engineering and structural works.
We had a pre-start meeting with all the customers and key stakeholders across site, followed by monthly on-site progress meetings. Email updates were provided after each meeting and throughout the construction programme if there was going to be any disruptive works. All other services on the site continued as normal as we kept the works tightly controlled and managed around Rayner Green.
Meanwhile, our Asset Management team led on arranging the disposal of Patrick Stead Hospital and the new lease agreements at Rayner Green with the provider East Coast Community Healthcare CIC.
Works started during the pandemic in April 2021 with an expectation of an Autumn 2021 completion. However, we came up against challenging groundwork issues caused a slight delay with completion until the New Year.
Result
The refurbishment works at Rayner Green Resource Centre have transformed the site into a modern, fit for purpose health centre which now includes 3 multi-use consulting/treatment rooms, a purpose-built gym/physio area, larger waiting room and phlebotomy space, all of which are on the ground floor.
Patients will benefit from more services being delivered at one, easily accessible, brand new, hub with upgraded parking and ground floor access, drastically improving their patient experience.
The refurbishment has also given staff a much needed, large open office space on the first floor.
The Norfolk and Waveney CCG has saved money as they now are not paying the maintenance costs for 242sqm of void space; money which can be directed into patient care instead.
With all our capital projects, we look to incorporate sustainable solutions. At Rayner Green, we installed new waste bin storage to allow for recycling and LED lights have been installed throughout which produce electricity savings of up to 75% and provide for a clearer and crisper light level which is very important in health facilities for patients and clinicians alike. We also installed a new separate electric meter on site to allow customers to be billed separately.
The facility now provides an attractive and modern health care facility in a safe and accessible setting for the residents of Halesworth and its locality.
