01905 362120
01905 362120
Partners Heart of Birmingham teaching Primary Care Trust, NHS South Birmingham, BaS LIFT and Prime plc have confirmed that contracts have been signed to deliver the new £13 million Attwood Green Health Centre to replace Colston Health Centre on Bath Row, Birmingham.
The substantial six storey building, which will be located only 200 yards away from the old health centre in the heart of Birmingham’s growing Attwood Green community, will provide over 4,500 sqm of space to bring together a wide range of health and care services. Two GP practices, The Hyman Practice and Bath Row Practice Medical Practice will relocate to the new building along with a new NHS dental service, onsite pharmacy as well as nursing, physiotherapy, outpatient clinics, speech and language services, a stop smoking clinic and sexual health services. The building will also accommodate the new offices of BaS LIFT Co and a range of wider PCT teams including district nursing, school nursing and health visiting teams.
Serving a current patient population of nearly 13,000 the centre is being developed to support the community’s rapid growth, with capacity to accommodate more clinicians giving the potential to increase the patient population to around 16,000. The centre will have a growing range of health services on offer to meet patient needs as well as easier access with extended opening hours from 8am to 8pm.
Dr Morgan, Senior Partner at Bath Row Medical Practice, said: “We are all delighted that the new health centre has been given the go ahead. The current premises were a major advance 20 years ago and we need to continue to advance. The local population has grown and we need to grow with it as well as making use of technology to provide more safe and effective care from the health centre. It is going to be better for current and future staff to develop new areas of clinical expertise and that can only be a good thing for patients.”
This redevelopment is part of the ‘Right Care, Right Here’ programme which aims to provide improved healthcare to residents by delivering services in high quality environments closer to where they live supported by Heart of Birmingham tPCT and NHS South Birmingham.
This will be the ninth development that BaS LIFT Co and Birmingham PCT’s have delivered together in partnership under the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme. Designed to improve health facilities for patients all across the city, BaS LIFT Co has also recently started work on a new community health centre in neighbouring Sparkhill.
Dr Ann Pursey, Chief Executive of BaS LIFT, said: “We are very much looking forward to moving into our new offices, and being part of the healthcare community based at Attwood Green Health Centre. It’s a striking building which will do justice to the stature of the previous health centre without relocating services more than a few hundred yards away. Its expanded capacity will serve this growing community well, enabling both PCTs to offer new services and to accommodate future growth of the patient population.”
Attwood Green Health Centre has been designed by healthcare specialists One Creative Environments Ltd to mirror the tall urban skyline along Bath Row, with striking Trespa resin fibre facade panels and strong use of glazing to create a landmark building on this busy city street. Despite its scale the building has been designed to make it easy for visitors to navigate with colour co-ordinated floors spanning out from a central glass atrium. In pursuit of BREEAM excellent the building will also incorporate a range of green features to maximise its efficiency and minimise waste.
The 4,500 sqm scheme will contribute significantly to the redevelopment of Bath Row which is part of the major £260 million Park Central regeneration programme that aims to physically, economically and socially transform this once run down area of the city, into a new village community. Set around seven acres of parkland and a 10 minute walk from the city centre, Park Central is the first phase of the regeneration of Attwood Green and will comprise of commercial space, new homes, health and leisure facilities, and the largest park within Birmingham’s Ring Road area. Work on the new Attwood Green Health Centre is expected to start on site in November 2010 with completion expected in winter 2011.
Ewan Forsyth, Development Director of Prime plc, added: “This is an excellent milestone to reach as its means we are now only a few weeks away from starting construction work on site. The centre will sit in the heart of a community which has seen significant growth with new city centre housing development. Not only will the centre expand GP capacity it will also bring much needed new services like NHS dentistry to the local area. I am also looking forward to seeing the new building take shape as its one of the most striking that I have had the pleasure of working on.”