A 21st century Health Campus for East Hull

Health estate partners reconfigure health centre in drive for better, more accessible services.

GPs, staff and patients, together with the city’s health organisations, will gather today to mark the official completion of the £3.4m Morrill Street health and wellbeing campus, East Hull.

The existing centre, which was built thirty years ago, has undergone a significant refurbishment and a new annex building, The New Green Surgery, has been built alongside. The modernised campus is now fit to house a variety of health and community services for local people and has created better working environments for staff. The complex scheme was built by Sewell on behalf of Hull Citycare Ltd and NHS Property Services.

With the practice population ever increasing in this East Hull area and a wider variety of health and community services now provided at Morrill Street, the existing facility was over crowded and teams were disjointed around the building.

Louise Ramsay, Area Team Manager of NHS Property Services Ltd explained:

“We needed to make the best use of the existing space as we knew the health centre was in the best location for its community. It’s in the heart of a residential area, on a bus route and close to local shops, but logistically the building was not working.”

Local estates partners from NHS Property Services Ltd and Hull Citycare Ltd, who have delivered twelve other health and community centres across the city over the last ten years, spent time with the staff and the local community to come up with an affordable, but logistically achievable solution.

Ms Ramsay continued:

“We came up with a solution that would provide the practices and community services with more suitable space, but with flexibility, as services will continue to evolve over the coming years. The response has been really positive; staff and patients are really pleased with the outcome.”

Project Manager Cavan Gray-Nicholson, Sewell Group, oversaw the phased project which was delivered on time, on budget and to the client’s high expectations. He explained:

“As we were working in and around the different services it was important that we built up an early relationship with the staff at the health centre and the local community. With all services still fully operational communication was vital. We all worked together as one big team and I’m pleased we were able to deliver the project on time and safely. It’s given the staff and patients the modern, fit for purpose health campus they deserve.”

Angela Gardner, Practice Manager at The New Green Surgery said:

“It’s a much nicer environment to sit and wait to see the doctor. I think it’s made it much better for our patients and brought us into the 21st century.”

Lynne McLeod, Reception Supervisor at Morrill Street Group Practice said:

“Everything they’ve done has been fantastic. It makes visitors feel better when they come into the centre. It makes us feel better, the staff have a positive attitudes and I think that comes across to the patients.”

The development of the Morrill Street campus has been described as an early example of how the public sector will make the best use of existing facilities and maximise their value by reconfiguring them to suit 21st century service needs.

Charles Lewis, Chair of Hull Citycare Ltd, the organisation that developed the Morrill Street campus on behalf of NHS Property Services Ltd, said:

“It’s all about working together to find new and innovative ways to improve access to services, whilst getting best value for the public purse. Albeit a complex solution to deliver, a campus with services across two facilities was the right solution for the patients and staff at Morrill Street, and that’s what it’s all about.”

“The construction team did a great job working in and around a fully operational health centre and have safely delivered a high quality finish. I’d like to thank the staff from the health centre and visitors for their patience and tolerance throughout the work.”

Dan Roper, Clinical Chair at NHS Hull CCG said:

“These facilities play an integral role in service transformation. Local people want to visit the doctor or nurse in a calming, welcoming environment, that’s ideally placed close to other local amenities, making the visit a convenient trip. The revitalised Morrill Street campus is exactly that.”

Karl Turner, MP for East Hull who will be speaking at the event said:

“Projects like this are so important for our communities; it shows our city is continuing to move forward. We must continue to collaborate as we’ve seen here, to make our city a better, healthier place to live and work.”

“I’m pleased to hear that yet again this partnership has made sure local people benefit from the development by sourcing 97% of the labour locally. £3.3m was spent with local companies.”