Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits new Medical Centre ahead of Autumn opening
With the key message of medical “super centres” being the future of Primary Care, Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid a visit to the new Station Medical Centre in Hereford, due to open this autumn.
The Prime Minister was taken around the site by the developer Prime, MP Jesse Norman and local GP partnership Hereford Medical Group. The surgery is being constructed by contractor Speller Metcalfe and designed by One Creative Environments.
The PM was interested to learn how specialist private investors and pension funds can deliver excellent value and affordable health infrastructure. When Chairman of Prime Richard Laing suggested that it would be possible to deliver 1,000 centres like Hereford across the UK at a rental cost which would be less than 0.5% of the NHS budget, the PM responded in agreement with “Why don’t we just do that?”.
Built to BREEAM Excellent – an industry-recognised standard to minimise energy usage, materials waste and reduce impact on the natural environment – the new Centre will meet the highest standards in sustainability, whilst serving an estimated 35,000 patients across the city.
The practices will be co-located in this striking modern building which can respond well to the increasing number of virtual consultations as well as being tremendously accessible for face to face consultations in the central location close to the hospital. From under one roof, HMG will be able to make a positive change to the delivery of GP services in the community, ensuring they are more sustainable and efficient. The Station Medical Centre will vastly improve the patient experience of seeing their local healthcare teams and widen the scope of services available to them.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “It was fantastic to see this brand new GP surgery being built right here in Hereford.
“When it opens its doors this autumn, patients around the city and surrounding communities will benefit from excellent care and access to a number of services under one roof.”
Richard Laing, Prime’s Chairman, said: “This fabulous new investment in the City’s healthcare infrastructure is the physical manifestation of the integration of services made possible by HMG. As a Hereford resident myself, I am really pleased to be working locally after many years delivering healthcare projects across the UK.”
The Prime team worked closely with the Group as they re-imagined health delivery across Hereford, alongside NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire CCG. The building will support the very best in joined-up health and care services.”
The development has also benefited the local community during its construction, with the majority of delivery teams and suppliers coming from within the local area, ensuring spend is kept within the region and fed back into the local economy.
The multimillion-pound investment, provided by Prime and Assura, is a priority scheme for the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) and represents the biggest ever single investment in primary care for Herefordshire.
