P+HS Architects - Mixed-Use Development - Washington, P+HS To Progress Washington Primary Care Centre
Date: 02 Oct 2007
National design practice P+HS Architects has announced the start of work on site to deliver an innovative new £8.9 million primary care centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear as part of the NHS Procure 21 Project with developers Laing O'Rourke and consultants AE Robb and WSP.
Working in line with the government's new white paper, 'Our Heath, Our Care, Our Community', the Washington Primary Care Centre is one of the first four projects in a 46.1 million pound initial wave of new community hospital services delivered under a variety of procurement methods.
Resulting from strategic proposals to provide four primary care centres facilitated by Sunderland Primary Care Trust, the Washington Primary Care Centre is the third primary care centre to be developed within the Sunderland area. The first of these centres already delivered was Grindon Lane, also designed by P+HS Architects. Completed in October 2004, the project gave P+HS the experience and opportunity to further improve the quality of primary care settings and develop new models of service delivery at the Washington centre.
When completed the centre will provide approximately 2400m2 of accommodation over two floors providing services that include, diagnostic tests such as ultrasound and x-ray, planned care for people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease and community renal dialysis with fifteen treatment beds for patients.
A series of detailed public consultation events were completed by the PCT to determine service requirements and specific design issues that were to be addressed by P+HS including family toilets and fully accessible adult change facilities. However the overriding design aspiration was for the new building to be fully accessible and non-clinical in terms of layout, materials and environment. This was ultimately achieved for the project through the careful selection of materials, colours, textures and abundant use of natural lighting and ventilation throughout the building. Glass Artist Bridget Jones has also been appointed by the PCT, with assistance of the Arts Council to work with P+HS to develop works and installations that are fully integrated into the building fabric.
Seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of the new facility various low energy systems have also been incorporated into the design, including roof mounted 'wind catchers' to facilitate the natural ventilation of the building and roof mounted solar pre-heating panels linked to the domestic hot water system.
Located within the City Boundary on the edge of existing parkland adjacent to Washington Leisure Centre and close to an existing Health Centre the site includes 125 new parking spaces and landscaped pedestrian links to the existing town centre.
Stephen Naylor, Head of Estates for Sunderland Primary Care Trust commented that: "We are delighted to be working with P+HS again and look forward to building on the successes of previous schemes".
The project, which is due to be completed in 2008, is one of more than 100 completed healthcare projects of varying sizes and complexity in the past twenty four years by P+HS, positioning the company firmly at the forefront of excellence in healthcare design.
Washington Primary Care Centre
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