The largest primary healthcare centre in Britain, the £30 million Aldershot Centre for Health, has been topped out with a final trowel-full of concrete by Professor Jonathan Montgomery, chair of Hampshire Primary Care Trust.
It will house three GP surgeries, diagnostics, dental services, a pharmacy, district nursing, health visiting services, children’s services, paediatrics, physiotherapy, counselling, drug and alcohol advice services, offices and a training suite. Local outpatient facilities for the nearby Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and mental health facilities for the Surrey Hampshire Borders NHS Trust will also be provided.
The MoD may share some NHS facilities as well as having a medical reception station for non-acute, recovering personnel and a multi-doctor primary health care practice of its own. As a result, the centre is already almost completely pre-let, leaving developers Wilky with only 3,500 ft2 of unlet space on the top floor.
At 138,500 ft2/12,866 m2, the building is many times bigger than a conventional health centre. It will have more than 750 rooms for 47 separate user groups. The concept is to provide economies of scale and meets objectives set out in the NHS Plan of 2000.
The centre is being built by Alfred McAlpine for developers The Wilky Group, which created a special funding package for Hampshire PCT, itself the largest PCT in Britain, and the Ministry of Defence. The PCT and MoD will own the centre outright when the 30-year lease expires.
Professor Montgomery said: “This is an exciting project for Aldershot and for the NHS in Hampshire. We are delighted to be working with Wilky, the local council and the Ministry of Defence to provide a health centre worthy of the town and its proud civilian and military history.”
