Medical Centre, Frodsham, Cheshire

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Hilton McCarthy working for Community Solutions for Primary Care (CSPC), part of Morgan Sindall Investments Ltd, was responsible for leading the successful OJEU bid to secure Preferred Development Partner from NHS Western Cheshire for their project, Princeway Medical Centre in Frodsham.

The completed project is located on the site former Frodsham comprehensive school and now provides a 3,100 sq.m building housing two GP practices, NHS Primary Care and Local Authority Social Services in addition to a Boots Pharmacy, adjacent to the local Leisure Centre. The building also benefits from the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standard.

Hilton’s role as development manager included leading the bid team, management of design and consultant team, securing planning approval, financial feasibility appraisal, site acquisition, negotiating legal agreements, and ultimately securing financial and legal close.

The management of multiple stakeholders to include NHS Primary Care services, Social Care and bringing together two separate GP Practices was a particular challenge that was overcome to ensure that the building was efficient as possible. Each party’s initial requirement was to have their own demise within the building would have been not only proved costly but a highly inefficient use of space. This space allocation and management exercise allowed the building to be used for additional community services including; Dental and a Minor Surgery suite, Community Matrons & Midwifery, Physiotherapy, District Nursing, Podiatry, Sexual Health Services, Dermatology, Phlebotomy and Speech & Language Therapy.

A further requirement to the brief was the inclusion of local artwork that would connect with the staff and public who would ultimately use the building and provide them a sense of connection and ownership. To achieve this, an art co-ordinator was commissioned who worked with stakeholders groups and the local schools which identified the themes of locality and DNA as the most prevalent. These themes were integrated in to the design by volunteers bringing in local items of interest that were photographed and also providing DNA swabs. A selection of images were strategically hung internally in the DNA sequencing pattern for a number of anonymous individuals. Externally the paving pattern was colour coded to provide further DNA sequencing of anonymous individuals. No single individual is aware of who’s DNA sequencing pattern was used in the art design, only that it is from the local population.

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