At a time when there is new emphasis on diagnosis and treatment in the community, Barry Panton, chairman of Prime plc, a specialist investor in health and social care, and the UK’s leading private partner in LIFT, takes a look at the latest Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) report Designed with Care.
When was the last time you felt disheartened by your surroundings? We all encounter unpleasant environments – such as the poorly lit and poorly ventilated office to the crowded, stuffy shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon. Environments in which we exist on a day-to-day basis have a huge and undeniable bearing on our health. If we already feel under the weather we do not need to endure this experience when we visit the doctor.
The material produced by CABE embraces the specifics, justifiably arguing that the environment in which we are treated is the one that is most likely to impact on our health. This is an environment that is under increasing scrutiny, with the Government diverting treatment out of the acute sector and into neighbourhood facilities, seeking to unite and strengthen health and social care.
Local care delivered at a local level is the latest and arguably most heightened Government focus of recent years, linked inextricably to a raft of White Papers culminating in Our health, Our care, Our say: a new direction for community services and initiatives such as practice based commissioning and patient choice.
But if we are to be truly successful in creating a renewed community focus on service delivery then we must be in the business of creating buildings that support and enhance this process. A point highlighted in the CABE report.
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