Community Diagnostics for Norfolk and Waveney
Employing the GIS mapping techniques developed for the Well Placed Hospital essay, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Wolfson Economics Prize, the Fleet and Place and Purpose Teams first analysed the most effective locations by access to locate the new Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC).
These locations were then assessed against the available property, circa 30 were identified, including existing NHS void spaces and a wide range of commercial spaces including former shops and department stores.
The Norfolk and Waveney CDCs are following a hub and spoke model with the high tech equipment, MRI and CT for instance, concentrated on existing acute sites. The spoke CDCs will incorporate a range of pathways including Respiratory, Cardiac, Cancer, Upper/Lower GI, Urological, Head and Neck, Ophthalmology, MSK and Diabetes. The designs seek to maximise flexibility of room use, with emphasis on adequate size, generous storage and non-specialism to ensure the buildings have a use stretching long into the future.
Current sites being evaluated include a former Wilkinsons, combing the works with the redesign of a community well-being facility and the re-use of 2 currently empty former inpatient wards within community hospital settings.
Read our essay ‘A Well Placed Hospital’ here:
More comment on the benefits of relocating health services to high foot fall town centre locations here: