P+HS Architects - General Development - Washington, Tyne and Wear
Date: 06 Oct 2008
National design practice P+HS Architects has announced today that the construction of the innovative, new £8.9 million primary care centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear has now been completed.
Working in line with the government's new white paper, 'Our Heath, Our Care, Our Community', the Washington Primary Care Centre is one of four projects in a £46.1 million initial wave of new community hospital services delivered under a variety of procurement methods. Resulting from strategic proposals to provide four primary care centres commissioned by Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, the Washington Primary Care Centre is the third primary care centre to be developed within the Sunderland area.
The state of the art centre includes approximately 2400m2 of accommodation over two floors providing services including 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, together with a minor injuries walk-in centre.
The overriding design aspiration has led the 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 was appointed by the PCT, with assistance of the Arts Council to work with P+HS to develop works and installations that are now fully integrated into the building fabric.
Seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of the new facility various low energy systems were 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 that work on the Washington Primary Care Centre is now completed. The local community will benefit from a state of the art, purpose built facility without the need to travel into the City Centre. We are looking forward to the delivery of all planned services from the facility by April 2009".
Washington Primary Care Centre 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.
Primary Care Center, Washington
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