Works at the new Greenwood Health Centre in Burntwood, Staffordshire, have now been completed. The £3.4m medical facility, which is located on Lichfield Road, has been constructed by Midlands contractor G F Tomlinson to bring first class healthcare facilities to the community and opened earlier this month.
The healthcare facility has been built on a Staffordshire County Council site that had been vacant since 2008, having previously been occupied by a residential care home.
The single-storey health centre replaces the current provision on Hudson Drive approximately 300 metres away, with medical services still being provided by the area’s local GP practice, Darwin Medical Practice, from within the new facility.
Consisting of 12 consulting rooms, five treatment rooms, a healthcare and phlebotomy room, and a health education space with an adjoining pharmacy unit, the Greenwood Medical Centre will provide much-needed upgraded and accessible healthcare facilities for the area.
Landscaping has also been carried out to the facility’s surroundings, with 61 onsite parking spaces created.
G F Tomlinson was selected from the Staffordshire County Council Framework to provide the construction works for the site which began in November last year, this being the contractor’s fifth project secured through the framework.
The scheme has been funded by NHS England’s Estates and Technology Transformation Fund, which aims to improve healthcare services for patients across the country with modernised facilities and technology.
Chris Flint, Managing Director of G F Tomlinson, said: “Greenwood House Health Centre is going to be a high-quality healthcare centre for the people of Burntwood: providing a modern, spacious and comfortable facility, which still includes their local GP practice, as well as new accessible treatment rooms, equipment and facilities.
“We’re very pleased to have completed this project working with the NHS and our local authority partners — our fifth project on the Staffordshire County Council Framework — delivering another important public service building in the area which will provide upgraded healthcare facilities to the local community.”
Julia Jessel, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Care, said: “For many years the County Council has held on to this site so it can be used to improve health provision in Burntwood and I am delighted to see the medical centre open.
“Part of the authority’s approach to improving the community’s health and wellbeing, particularly among older residents, is to have more people treated closer to home wherever possible and this first-class building allows us to do that.”
Dr Gerbo Huisman, GP Partner at Darwin Medical Practice, commented: “I am delighted that years of collaborative working and planning between skilled and dedicated professionals from local health authorities, the county council and The Darwin Medical Practice are now coming 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.”
Lynn Millar, director of Primary Care for the NHS Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups, said: “We‘re absolutely delighted that this fantastic new medical centre is now receiving its first patients. This really shows the way that we want primary care to develop with more space to grow our primary care workforce and treat patients here in Burntwood. It’s not just GPs that patients could book appointments with. There is provision for other allied health professionals such as advanced nurse practitioners, physiotherapists, and mental health therapists.”
Staffordshire County Council led this project, with project management from ENTRUST and G F Tomlinson acting as main contractor.
