Following a high-level feasibility study, we recommended reorienting the building and optimising the layout to meet operational needs. Additional land was secured to provide sufficient parking for staff and patients. During preconstruction, we completed rigorous due diligence supported by stocktake reports, giving clear visibility of risks and milestones and ensuring alignment with programme objectives.
Our end-to-end service and expertise – covering Property Development, Property Disposal and Reinvestment, Lease Advisory, Town Planning, Capital Project Management and Facilities Management – ensured the successful delivery of the project. Completed in late autumn 2024, the facility offers primary care services and community based secondary care outreach services, enhancing access to healthcare for around 10,000 residents in the town and nearby areas.
The challenge
In March 2022, NHSPS was approached by NHS England (NHSE) and Norfolk & Waveney ICB to support a new health care project at King’s Lynn. Initially our role was to assist the ICB with site acquisition, obtaining planning consents, contractor selection, and managing the pre-construction and construction process.
The solution
By March 2023, recognising our expertise in managing all aspects of the development and delivery process - including defining occupier agreements, site due diligence and town planning support - the ICB requested us to deliver and operate the project upon completion.
We liaised with landowners, planning and highways authorities, UK Power Networks, NHSE, local commissioners, and King’s Lynn Health Hub’s future users. This was through design meetings, steering and engagement groups. Once this stage was complete, we undertook to manage the facility by agreeing on occupational documentation and planning the operational services in the building.
Construction began in 2023 and completed in late autumn 2024. The project is part of a regeneration initiative and will expand primary care services, ensuring long-term capacity to support housing growth in and around King’s Lynn. It will provide additional capacity for the local Primary Care Network, as well as secondary care outreach services from the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust.
The impact
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Primary health care capacity: The Health Hub will offer a range of primary care services, as well as secondary care outreach services. It will house new clinical rooms, providing a modern, fully accessible and digitally enabled facility that will transform how health and care services are delivered in the King’s Lynn area, and increase access to a wider range of services for approximately 10,000 people in the town and surrounding areas.
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Reduces pressure on emergency services: Improved primary care capacity means less emergency department visits, where people often go if they can’t see their GP.
NHSPS key value add areas
From business case development to town planning and cleaning, our team of experts make it easier and more cost effective for our customers help to tackle health inequalities by helping them better assess, adapt and maintain their estate. For King’s Lynn Health Hub, we provided an end-to-end range of services. Including:
We supported the ICB with their business case, estimating the rental, construction and running costs of each option.
We successfully negotiated and secured the lease, ensuring the NHS received the best value by obtaining the most favourable terms possible.
We acquired the site from the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.
Our Town Planning team conducted a comprehensive planning review of the site to assess its potential for a health care development. The site benefitted from an outline consent for the delivery of office development as part of a wider masterplan for the area. We recommended submitting a full planning application for healthcare use. Working closely with the Design and Build contractor, our team proactively engaged with the Local Planning Authority to obtain planning consent within shortened timeframes. This would enable the facility to be delivered in accordance with the client’s deadlines.
Our Construction team supported the fitouts from initial design through to occupation – keeping to agreed timescales and providing regular stakeholder updates throughout the process. We took the lead on construction, appointing the design and build partner. We focused on designs that would meet clinicians’ needs, giving maximum flexibility and futureproofing of space.
Once King’s Lynn became operational, we provided a full suite of Hard and Soft FM services, from lighting, electricals and HVAC services, through to ground maintenance, and security. Keeping the building compliant and running smoothly.
NHSPS’s Healthy Places programme focuses on the successful delivery of projects that help the NHS get the most from its estate and drive better health outcomes for patients and clinicians.
Since launching in 2020, we have progressed 600 projects, including building new health centres, refurbishing hospitals, optimising office space and delivering social prescribing sites.
