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When Primary Healthcare Feels The Strain, Is There A Faster Way To Build Capacity?

The national goal is to build over 250,000 new homes each year. That’s a big enough task on its own. It also has major implications for health services in some areas. Where there are large planned developments, capacity will have to be expanded. This expansion will either be in existing primary care facilities or through new surgeries and health centres.

In many parts of the country, GP practices are already running at full capacity. As much as they might like to take on new patients they simply don’t have the space or facilities. Depending on the property type and mix of tenure, extensive new housing schemes can also transform demographics and shift demand patterns for different services.

A substantial new housing development is an opportunity to rethink the scope of services that can be delivered and co-located in community healthcare facilities. Healthcare construction programmes need to be much more flexible and responsive than in the past. Capacity can then expand efficiently and in the right way to meet these rapidly changing needs.

Because business planning and approval processes for new health facilities take time, it’s a distinct advantage if the construction schedule is kept as short as possible.

Affordability

It’s just as important that projects are cost-effective and affordable. Value for money is certain to become even more important as public finances are rebuilt following the pandemic.

All of these factors point in one direction: Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). Expertise in applying modern methods to deliver high-quality healthcare facilities faster and more cost-effectively will be a sought-after capability.

While MMC brings opportunities to deliver programmes significantly faster, it’s also a different way of working. Optimising programmes to cut out the maximum amounts of time and cost, while simultaneously improving building performance in key areas such as energy efficiency, largely depends on knowledge accumulated from project to project.

Osborne has substantial experience of applying MMC to rapidly increase capacity in local services. Often this involves working in live environments and restricted sites. We also have access to other complimentary solutions such as our modular car parking system that help free up land for expanded healthcare facilities, both within communities and on hospital sites.

Find out more by visiting our healthcare construction resource centre, or contact Richard King ([email protected]).

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