A new £5m neighbourhood health centre development has been completed in Kensington, Liverpool.
Situated at the junction at Edge Lane, Durning Road and Holt Road, the new facility will officially open its doors to patients later this month.
As well as providing patients with longer GP opening hours, it will offer a range of enhanced health services including dental, pharmacy, childhood immunisations and vaccinations, blood tests, sexual health, counselling, antenatal and baby clinics.
The project marks the completion of the final phase of NHS Liverpool’s wider vision for ‘A New Health Service for Liverpool’, which has seen £80m invested in new purpose-built and refurbished health facilities across the city since 2007.
Other new developments have already opened in Everton, Walton, Picton, Aintree, Speke, Childwall, Garston, Anfield and Princes Park.
Gideon Ben-Tovim, chairman of NHS Liverpool, said: “We are delighted to be opening Kensington Neighbourhood Health Centre, which is the PCT’s final development as part of the programme to deliver a ‘New Health Service for Liverpool’.
“This is one of the most extensive and ambitious health programmes the city of Liverpool has ever seen,= and I feel very proud of the work that has been done to improve healthcare facilities for different communities across the city.
“As Liverpool PCT now prepares to handover to Clinical Commissioning Groups next month, I am delighted to be able to leave a lasting legacy of improved healthcare facilities and better health in Liverpool to our successors.”
Dr Nadim Fazlani, chairman of Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group, is one of the GPs moving into the new centre. He said: “In recent years we have seen significant investment in Liverpool’s healthcare facilities, which has in turn supported a shift towards providing care closer to people’s homes.
“Although the opening of Kensington Neighbourhood Health Centre signals the completion of the PCT’s programme, this is by no means the end of the story. The network of state-of-the-art health centres that now exists in the city will provide a tremendous platform from which to continue plans to improve services offered to the local population. Liverpool CCG will build on this legacy to offer high-quality primary care to the people of Liverpool.”
The development was delivered by Liverpool and Sefton Health Partnerships (LSHP), which was formed in 2004 as part of the NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT), a Government initiative designed to stimulate investment in local primary and social care facilities. LSHP specialises in the delivery of modern, innovative health and community facilities.
Graham Pink, chief executive of LSHP, said: “When we first set out to undertake these plans we had a very clear vision for delivering attractive and modern health centres which would transform the way NHS services are delivered and benefit thousands of patients across the city.
“I am delighted this vision is being fully realised and that people living in Kensington and throughout the city are now able to enjoy access to modern health services located closer to where they live.”
The opening of Kensington Health Centre forms part of wider regeneration plans for the area, including the £350m Edge Lane Project, which includes work to create a dual carriageway along the full length of Edge Lane, new housing, and more than 1,000,000 square feet of new and refurbished commercial and retail floor space and community facilities. Following the highway works that were completed last year, the health centre is the first major development to be delivered following the compulsory purchase process.
