Posted on Monday 5th October 2020
Construction work on a new health centre is due to begin next month.
The Greenwood House Medical Centre on Lichfield Road, Burntwood, will replace the Hudson Drive site of Darwin Medical Practice and provide 12 new consulting rooms, five treatment rooms, a healthcare/phlebotomy room, and a health education space in a single-story building. The plans also include accommodation for an adjoining pharmacy.
The site, once occupied by a nursing home, is currently owned by Staffordshire County Council and the funding is from NHS England’s Estates and Technology Transformation Fund, a multi-million pound investment programme aimed at providing more modernised buildings and technology to improve GP services for patients across the country
It is hoped that the new centre will reduce pressure on local hospitals with purpose-built, modern facilities designed to meet the demands of an ageing population with multiple healthcare needs.
Johnny McMahon, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Health, Care and Wellbeing, said:
Part of the strategy for reducing demand on our hospitals from ageing communities is to provide more facilities and services in the community and we have always earmarked this site for use to benefit the people of Burntwood.
This will be a first-class health centre on the community’s doorstep and it will make a huge contribution to residents’ health and wellbeing, as well as supporting older people’s independence.”
Lynn Millar, Director of Primary Care for the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent CCGs, said:
We are delighted that work is to begin on this purpose built accommodation in very close proximity to a facility that is no longer able to meet modern healthcare needs.
The new premises will be more spacious and will allow the practice to fulfil its potential by providing the accommodation required for their expert training of the clinicians of the future. This will also improve recruitment and retention of staff by providing a modern workplace.
In addition, the new building will facilitate closer collaboration and the co-location of primary care with other professionals such as physiotherapists and mental health practitioners.”
Dr Gerbo Huisman, GP Partner at Darwin Medical Practice, said:
I am delighted that years of collaborative working between skilled and dedicated professionals from local health authorities, the County Council and The Darwin Medical Practice have now come to fruition.
Our patients, as well as the wider community, are now getting what they have asked for so long; a modern, spacious and comfortable health centre from which we, their GP practice, will be delivering high quality, responsive and patient centred primary care services.”
Building work is scheduled to be completed by autumn 2021. The site will have 61 car parking spaces, uses the existing road entrance and its surroundings will be landscaped.