A £1.75m project to create additional bed space and new facilities at Newton Community Hospital in St Helens has now been completed, offering a huge boost to local residents and supporting Government and NHS plans to shift more care out of hospitals and into the community.
Newton Community Hospital was built in 2008 by Community Health Partnerships and investor Renova under the NHS LIFT partnership. The building has grown to become a vital part of the local community, offering a range of health and social care services all under one roof including a GP practice, physiotherapy, X-ray, ultrasound and cardiology. Newton also has an inpatient ward that provides vital ‘step down’ capacity for the NHS, allowing patients to leave hospital and be given intermediate care in a community setting before returning home, which supports the government, and CHP’s, aims.
Building on Newton’s role in supporting the community and neighbourhood health priorities, £1.75m of CHP capital funding was secured that has allowed CHP, Renova, Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust to deliver a number of new and improved facilities.
The changes created additional space for ten new inpatient beds and one specialist bariatric bedroom, taking the number of beds at Newton up to 40 in total, a 33% increase in bed space. This uplift will help to boost NHS efforts to shift more care into the community.
Turning meeting space into a new gym and physiotherapy suite and creating additional clinical room capacity will further allow increased health service provision. Sustainability improvements including the change of light fittings to LEDs will help reduce the building’s energy output.
The works were carefully planned so that the improvements could be delivered while the wider hospital building remained open and fully functional to NHS staff and local patients.
Newton Community Hospital is a fantastic example of how we can use our buildings to deliver on the government’s key missions and the 10 year health plan. The extra beds will increase both capacity and productivity within the area, delivering care closer to home for those who need it most. We have worked closely with our partners on this project to improve outcomes at the heart of the neighbourhood
The NHS LIFT estate can play a crucial role in supporting the shift from hospital to community-care, so the delivery of additional bed space at Newton Community Hospital will offer a huge boost for local residents and the NHS. The completion of these works underlines the strength of the public and private sectors working together to deliver new and improved neighbourhood health facilities.
CHP’s PACE Programme
The additional beds, physiotherapy and gym project at Newton Community Hospital supports CHP’s commitment to the PACE (Productivity Acceleration in Community Estates) Programme, a national CHP initiative to prioritise the delivery of opportunities to increase productivity across the LIFT estate. CHP will continue to work with and support ICBs and Trusts in their strategic initiatives to identify potential opportunities.
Read more about CHP PACE projects: PACE
Get support from CHP
Get in touch with your CHP Regional Director and regional Property and Operations team to find out how they can support clinical services at CHP buildings providing high-quality, modern, core NHS facilities for patients in their local communities.
