Ensuring that neighbourhood healthcare buildings are designed around the needs of patients and staff will contribute positively to the health and wellbeing of the local community, but design considerations for multi-use healthcare buildings are very different to those for a typical GPs’ surgery.
Kirsty Carnell, marketing manager for Martek Contracts, explores.
While demand for healthcare buildings and services should increase in the coming years as the population ages, budget cuts and NHS reforms are creating pressure on contractors and architects to design healthcare facilities that are multi-use, patient-centred, and which encourage efficiencies in working practices. These include walk-in centres, one-stop facilities, and diagnostic and treatment centres, but neighbourhood health facilities in particular are becoming increasingly popular, and have very different requirements to a typical GPs’ surgery. These centres will need to be occupied by staff, patients, visitors, and volunteers, on a daily basis, thus driving the need for multi-use and multi-functional healthcare facilities. In addition, as many neighbourhood health centres incorporate under one roof multiple facilities such as GPs’ surgeries, clinics, minor surgery facilities, dental services, pharmacies, and other services such as audiology, the buildings should be designed to be truly efficient and ‘multi-use’ by their very nature. Shared facilities like these represent a new way of thinking in community care. The mutual benefits of the combined building are considerable, and can provide a local healthcare service for all, regardless of the nature of the illness or condition.
Contributing to community wellbeing
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