Three practices will have a new home in the proposed purpose-build primary care centre in Hailsham, East Sussex, whose plans will be unveiled on 11 December at Hailsham Town Council Offices.
The new three-storey purpose-build facility will not only include the Seaforth Farm Surgery, the Vicarage Field Surgery (both operating under the Hailsham Medical Group) and the Bridgeside Surgery, but also some rooms for consulting and treatment, a pharmacy and a small operating theatre.
The building will also feature out of hospital services that will be provided by the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
Assura, the business in charge of creating the new fit-for-purpose building, is collaborating with designers and partners such as East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Eastbourne, Hailsham and Seaford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
Senior development manager at Assura Simon Gould told Management in Practice: ‘The building will score excellent in the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating because it will be highly sustainable.
‘It will be highly insulated and use renewable energy.’
GPs and developers are working together to understand how to create a new space that will meet patients’ needs, in compliance with the East Sussex Better Together programme, which aims at working with partners to achieve a single healthcare organisation for the future.
‘We are looking forward to getting views from the community on these designs, which are about creating the modern space Hailsham needs to treat not only growing numbers of patients but also to offer more healthcare services closer to home and away from hospital, as digital technology and general practice evolve,’ said Mr Gould.
The new building will address the issue of a lack of space in the practices.
Dr Savvakis Savvas from Bridgeside Surgery said: ‘Due to our increased patient numbers we are lacking in space in our current building. Therefore, we very much look forward to moving into a modern purpose built building which will provide extra capacity and an expansion of service for all our patients.’
Practice manager at Hailsham Medical Group Stanford Jeffrey hopes that the new building will help attract new GPs.
He said: ‘GP recruitment remains a challenge for all GP practices throughout the UK and it is our hope that this new development will provide an attractive incentive for newly qualified and experienced GPs to join us and further their careers in Hailsham.
‘All our clinicians and staff are very much looking forward to moving into our new, purpose built primary care facility and to being able to continue to provide the very highest level of clinical care to our steadily growing list of patients.’
The building will open to the public from autumn 2019 and will receive support from the NHS England’s Estates and Technology Transformation Fund (ETTF).
