Published date: 10 December 2020
Helping a CCG get the most from their estate by moving clinical services and undertaking full refurbishment
Rotherham Community Health Centre
Background
Customer: Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust and Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group
NHSPS representatives: Martin Salmon, Senior Construction Manager and Janet Neve, Senior Property Manager
Problem
The project was devised by Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) so that Rotherham Foundation Trust (FT) could make better use of their existing estate.
The CCG was responsible for 21.74% of the space within Rotherham Community Health Centre, which consisted of two main wings on the ground and first floor which were vacant after local community services and a GP Walk-In Centre moved out. The footprint offered an opportunity to relocate their existing Ophthalmology Suite, situated within the main hospital, without too much reconfiguration to the existing structure. Accessing the hospital was difficult due to poor public transport links and a congested car park.
Rotherham CCG made funding available of £750k for Rotherham FT to commission the works.
This would mean that Rotherham FT would be in occupation of 96% of the property and a new lease agreement would need to be drawn up to reflect this.
Solution
To accommodate the ophthalmology suite, a full refurbishment was commissioned.
As the building is privately owned by a landlord and NHS Property Services is the owner of the head lease, we were commissioned to design and implement the works on Rotherham FT’s behalf.
Ongoing lease negotiations and then COVID-19 meant works could not start as planned in early 2020. The existing space was used as a temporary decant space for COVID-19 testing. This was freed up in June and we began the re-fit at the end of June, completing on 2 October 2020.
Rotherham Community Health Centre was built as a primary care facility in 2008 and the space available for conversion consisted of consulting rooms, a minor procedure room, 2 x-ray rooms and a collection of support spaces. A programme of alteration and refurbishment was developed to re-purpose the space into a modern Ophthalmology Suite. This included minor demolition, upgrading of mechanical and electrical services and a completely new palette of finishes.
Impact
Patients can now receive ophthalmology services in a modern, welcoming, fit-for-purpose environment. The department provides 26 new consultation / treatment rooms incorporating facilities for the latest in Ophthalmology treatments including: -
- Optical Coherence Tomography
- Fundus Fluorescein Angiography
- Laser Treatments.
- Ophthalmic injections.
- Minor Surgery.
By moving the main service away from the hospital site, patients can access ophthalmology services much more easily as the Health Centre has more car parking available and better links to public transport. It is located within the town centre and has excellent public transport links, being adjacent to the railway station which also has tram links to Sheffield and the Meadowhall Shopping Centre.
Relocating the Ophthalmology Suite to Rotherham Community Health Centre allowed the FT to free up much needed space in their existing hospital site to allow for further expansion on their estate. Patients can also access existing services more easily as parking congestion at Rotherham FT’s main hospital has been eased by moving these services elsewhere.
The health centre is also a key part of the Rotherham town centre/ riverside regeneration strategy of the council and the full utilisation of this site is important for this.
