Houghton Le Spring Primary Care Centre

The new Houghton Le Spring Primary Care Centre has put health and wellbeing at the forefront of the local community.

It provides a one-stop shop for a variety of healthcare and leisure services. The healthcare facilities include a 24-bed rehabilitation unit, an illness and injuries unit, physiotherapy, treatment, diagnostics and planned care suites, café and meeting rooms. Leisure amenities include new dance and wellness studios and a MUGA (multi-use games area).

Willmott Dixon held consultation events with the local community before we started building, to find out what they thought of the plans. Stakeholders learnt about environmental aspects, work on site and the importance of safety in construction, with messaging tailored to the age groups and needs of visitors. Community gardens and footpaths were created.

The building is planned and laid out to make getting around quicker, easier and more comfortable for staff, patients and visitors alike. The design team tracked the route of all visitors and staff that would use the building to ensure the space was efficient to navigate. We adopted a number of ‘lean’ principles, one of which was dual-sided cupboards to the consulting rooms, reducing the amount of storage space required elsewhere in the building.

The project achieved a score of 36 on the Considerate Constructors Scheme, 8% higher than industry average.

BREEAM Outstanding – key features

• Unique thermal wall maintains constant temperature
• Annual energy bills 38% lower than a standard health building
• 82% of the subcontract value within a 15 mile radius of site
• 96% of all construction waste diverted from landfill
• ‘A’ rated energy performance against Part L 2006
• Materials with low environmental impacts through their life cycle specified
• Ecological improvements - bat boxes installed and new habitats planted
• Light pollution mitigated by the selection of appropriate fittings
• Installed renewables reduce the building’s CO2 emissions by 38% in comparison to a traditional building, and include: photovoltaic panels, ground source heat pumps, wind turbine
• Rain water reclamation

"The scheme reinforces the ambitious sustainability targets set out in our management plan."

Karen Straughair, chief executive, NHS South of Tyne & Wear