The Village Practice building, owned by NHS Property Services, opened in the 1990’s, is a key strategic asset for NHS NCL ICB. The practice was under significant operating and capacity pressures, affecting their ability to serve patients along with maintaining and growing their workforce. The project, which was delivered by NHS NCL ICB gbpartnerships consult and Camden and Islington Estates Partnership (CIEP), has drastically improved space to see patients, repositioning The Village Practice as the most advanced estate within the North Islington 1 PCN, and a shining example of best practice throughout NHS Islington. gbp and CIEP, in their capacity as Borough Estates lead, worked closely with the practice, main contractor and contract administrators to overcome a variety of hurdles on the project. To deliver the expansion successfully, the ICB/gbp provided
- Programme management (with an element of client side project management)
- Borough Estates Advisory Services, with a focus on stakeholder engagement, management and relationship building.
- NHS finance administration, with a focus on securing additional project funding,
- Funding due diligence, cost control and budget tracking.
Project Objectives
- Increase the clinical and operating capacity of the practice via the development of the new ‘west wing’ on the former car park site.
- Redevelop and reconfigure the site layout to ensure maximise space and improve flows for staff and patients in line with operational best practice.
- Update existing areas to ensure compliance with healthcare standards.
- Future proof capacity to ensure the practice has the best possible premises to deliver health and care for the local population for many years.
Deliverables
The project has delivered:
- four new clinical rooms
- a new multipurpose meeting room (for use by practice staff, social prescribers and Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme [ARRS] workers)
- improved healthcare compliance to make the practice fit-for-purpose into the next decade
- better space and better flows so the GPs can provide best practice care.
Project Impact
The completed works at The Village Practice have:
- Provided an additional 500 appointments per week
- Increased clinical consulting space by 40%
- Enabled the delivery of additional services
- Refreshed the estate so it is IPC and DDA compliant
- Reconfigured the layout so it is operationally effective
- Reduced pressures on the surrounding healthcare estate & North Islington 1 PCN
The Village Practice is now able to provide additional services, increasing the quality of local care provision across North Islington:
- Islington GP Federations (IGPF) IHUB, which provides out of hours
services to the local population - Facilitate the ‘ARRS’ workers and community workers, including: two pharmacists, Mental Health nurse, Physiotherapy, minor surgery and a Health and Wellbeing Coach.
- GP Training Practice: from September ‘22 the practice will host a Year 3 Imperial student alongside Junior Doctors from ‘Health Education England’ – (UCLH) at a FY2s, FT1 and FT3 level of rotation.
- Other wider services the practice plan to deliver from the new space
include:
– Health Visitors
– Social Prescribers
– Additional Islington GP Federation services, notably Community Paramedics and blood (phlebotomy) clinics
– Mental Health workers, namely psychologists and social workers