Taking away the pain for family doctors

Since 2004, Community Ventures has been supporting GP practices to deliver the best facilities for patients and staff. During this time, we’ve helped find innovative solutions to construct or extend over 70 primary care centres, working in long-term partnerships with practices and trusts to give them buildings fit for the demands of modern healthcare.

There’s a lot of pressure on GPs, from meeting increasing patient demand, to recruiting and retaining staff. GPs who are in old or temporary accommodation are particularly hard-pressed, with 4 in 10 GPs saying they are seeing patients in buildings which are ‘unfit for purpose’.

Yet it’s difficult for practices to resolve issue with their premises. They often don’t have the capital funding, resources or in-house expertise and knowledge to project manage a new building, including sourcing funding,

St George’s Medical Practice, based in the North East near Darlington, has been operating out of a temporary modular building for seven years. They desperately needed new premises to meet increased patient demand, but needed support to make their dream of a new practice building a reality.

Community Ventures helped them clarify what they wanted from a new practice, and then developed and delivered their new practice from inception to completion, including providing funding for the scheme.

The Community Ventures team supported the GP practice staff through the whole process, purchasing the site, managing the design and construction of the scheme, and ensuring it complied with all technical requirements of health buildings.

The GP staff were involved throughout the whole design and delivery process, ensuring the building works for staff and patients, and giving the building an identity of its own.

The practice will lease the building for 25 years, meaning they haven’t had to provide any capital investment to get the scheme off the ground, yet their end result is a bespoke building suited to their way of working, and tailored to their practice’s individual needs.

Liz Stewart, Practice Manager of Middleton and Dinsdale Medical Practice, said:

“This new practice will transform the way we can provide patient care, giving us a facility purpose-built for medical care that we and the community can be proud of.

“Community Ventures have supported us throughout the entire process, ensuring our new building is exactly what we wanted it to be. It’s designed to allow us to deliver a wider range of services to patients, but adaptable enough to be able to flex and change in line with changing patient requirements over the coming years.”

“Our staff can’t wait to get settled into the new building, and welcome patients to our custom-built medical centre.”
Community Ventures’ Scott Clarkson, who project managed the new medical practice, said:

“When we first met with the practice staff, they were seeing patients in a temporary modular building, which wasn’t ideal for either patients or staff.

“So it was really rewarding to be able to hand over the keys to a brand new building to the staff, after having supported them throughout the entire scheme from beginning to end. Planning and building a new medical practice is a complex process, so it’s been a privilege to work with the surgery staff to design, develop and deliver a bespoke new building that is planned around the way they work, making sure they can continue providing fantastic care for their patients.

“This scheme is a fantastic example of close partnership working, not only with the practice, but also with the ICB and NHS Property Services, who have been extremely supportive throughout and have been instrumental in delivery of this amazing facility.”