Health on the high street: How could we bring healthcare to our city centres?

Recent years have seen a total shift in how people have had to access healthcare. Previously, a visit to a healthcare facility was a rare requirement for citizens of reasonable health. If you had the flu, a headache or generally felt off, there was scarcely any need to go to the doctor, let alone a hospital. Most people were comfortable sleeping it off, confident their ails would be cured with little more than over-the-counter medications and some RNR.

Big healthcare institutions, like our hospitals, were exclusively for chronic cases. But even then, the NHS was under pressure. Fast forward to the pandemic, and it’s evident these facilities were not built to handle the large influxes of patients we see today.

The pandemic has changed everything. Healthcare centres have two opposing issues:

• Overcrowding with COVID cases and a fearful public more likely to seek healthcare for smaller ailments than they would have in the past.

• People actively avoiding visiting big health hubs for fear of contracting the virus.

Traditional healthcare structures are not able to amply serve the public under this unexpected and underprepared situation. But there are interesting solutions being implemented.

Bringing health to the high street

In the past, we have discussed the benefits of inner city healthcare:

• Reducing health inequalities
• Creating convenience with greater access
• Saving the NHS money
• Helping the environment
• Making our cities more liveable

But what about the details? Where could these services go, and is there really a practical path to deliver this?

Interestingly, projects in this vein are on the horizon. UK architecture firm ADP recently published a report detailing a collaborative project between ADP, Macmillan Cancer Support, iDEA and Carter Jonas addressing the current supply and demand imbalance and what could be done to solve it.

Shopping for Health unpacks the how and why of bringing healthcare to the high street.

The case is this: currently, shopping centres have more than 1.6 million m2 of vacant space. The NHS wants to “lift and shift” some of its services into central areas to be more accessible and relieve pressure on other locations. So why not relocate NHS services to these spaces?

And this is being done.

Runcorn Shopping Centre

ADP is working on projects right now that demonstrates how practical these solutions can be. In Cheshire, a vacant retail unit in Runcorn Shopping City is to be the new location for the Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust to relocate its ophthalmology and audiology outpatient services as part of a “Healthy New Towns Programme”.

The goal of the programme is to bring particular NHS outpatient services to the local community within walking distance of people’s homes.

Gloucester’s old Debenhams department store

Another example is underway in Gloucester. What was previously a Debenhams department store will become an inner city campus for the University of Gloucestershire’s Health and Social Care department.

These examples highlight the accessibility of space and the multitude of benefits moving to these locations can bring. We can reduce pressure in some places while at the same time improving access amongst the community.

There’s room for everyone to get on board

The good news for other architecture firms and healthcare facilities is that there is no shortage of available space. There’s no need to build brand new buildings, so the environmental impact is smaller. Shopping centre rental prices are dropping, and existing foot traffic is good for business. Existing spaces can be redesigned, refurbished, refitted and refurnished with healthcare requirements in mind, such as infection control, patient comfort, drug storage and functionality.

For inspiration, we strongly recommend reading the ADP Shopping for Health white paper, where you can dive deeper into the technical findings regarding space sizes, location averages and research on the current rental statistics and NHS programmes.

Health on the high street – find out more

David Bailey Furniture Systems manufactures hospital-grade furniture and fitted storage solutions for the healthcare sector and have provided furniture for NHS and private hospitals, health centres, GP surgeries and other healthcare facilities across the country. Our expert team can advise on bespoke solutions for your micro-facility that are both stylish and functional.

View our product brochure here.

Read case studies about healthcare furniture installations we have carried out.

If you would like to learn more about our healthcare furniture solutions and how we support contractors and architects in the healthcare sector, please get in touch with one of our experts today.