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Contracts have been signed for one of the UK’s largest primary healthcare centres, allowing building to start next spring. Facilities at the Aldershot Centre for Health will be shared by the civilian and military communities of the historic garrison town in Hampshire.
Blackwater Valley and Hart Primary Care Trust and the Ministry of Defence have taken 30-year leases on the 134,500 sq ft building from a local company, The Wilky Group.
Aldershot Centre for Health is among the first of a new wave of private sector provided one-stop health centres that were called for in the NHS Health Plan of July 2000. As large as many community hospitals and up to 30 times bigger than a conventional health centre, it will provide front line healthcare for about 45,000 local people, as well as specialist services for around 250,000.
Wilky will soon award a building contract, totalling more than £25m. In addition, Wilky will take on the maintenance contract at a fixed cost and at their risk, for the duration of the 30-year lease. Afterwards, ownership of the Centre will pass to the NHS and MoD. Wilky is planning to offer similar developments and its unique funding package to other NHS Primary Care Trusts around the UK, through a new subsidiary called Wilky Healthcare Centres.
Construction – on former MoD land at Hospital Hill – is expected to last two years. The project will allow the three GP surgeries to relocate from the existing Aldershot Health Centre. It will provide an enhanced range of modern primary care facilities and diagnostics, as well as improved outpatient amenities, pharmacy, dentistry, mental health, podiatry, family planning and a minor surgery unit. The Centre will also provide local outpatient facilities for the nearby Frimley Park Hospital, as well as mental health facilities for the Surrey Hampshire Borders NHS Trust.
The MoD will share the centre to provide medical services for the 5,000 soldiers stationed at Aldershot, including a medical reception station for non-acute, recovering personnel and a multi-doctor primary health care practice. It is also considering sharing some NHS facilities.
The new development means the PCT and Army can rationalise their local primary healthcare facilities, with soldiers, their families and other members of the community receiving treatment at the same location. This will also help the regeneration of the town, including Rushmoor Borough Council’s redevelopment of the Princes Hall/Wellington Avenue site. Wilky has applied for planning permission for further phases of development to serve the local community, alongside the Centre for Health. Phase 2 will see a new Aldershot College of further education, to the west of the Centre, and an 80-bed nursing home on the eastern side of the 5.8-acre site.
Debbie Glenn, PCT Chief Executive, said: “This scheme represents a significant commitment of funds for vastly improved health facilities for the people of Aldershot and a unique cooperative venture between the health service and MoD.”
Malcolm Young, chief Executive of The Wilky Group, said: “Negotiations were protracted, mainly due to the project’s complexity but, such is its importance to the community, all parties have spared no effort to reach this agreement.”
Colonel Stephen Oxlade, Aldershot Garrison Commander, said: “The new Centre will provide the most up-to-date facilities. We are looking forward to working with our colleagues from the NHS in what I am sure will be the finest example of a primary care medical centre in the UK.”
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