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Planning and construction
The building which houses the Centre was one of the first in this country to be built
entirely in reinforced concrete. Part of the second floor, which it was proposed to adapt,
had not been used for some time and required considerable alterations, the scope for
which was severely limited because it was impracticable to pull down, alter or adapt any
structural walls. The planning of the various rooms had to take into account the reinforced
columns and beams and it was necessary to fit around these the operational parts of the
Centre in a relationship which could not easily be changed.
To simplify the layout, it was decided to build a separate entrance vestibule, staircase
and lift block, connected by a bridge to the building at second floor level. The entrance
to the lift and staircase was designed both for pedestrians and for patients arriving by
ambulance; stretcher patients may be lifted direct from the ambulance into the lift under
cover. A car park with turning space for ambulances was an essential part of the scheme
and it has been surrounded by gardens. Within the Centre is a pathological laboratory, an
X-ray suite with dark- and viewing-rooms, two consulting rooms, a nursing treatment and
minor operations suite, a common room and office accommodation. There was already on
the same floor a child guidance unit and it was necessary to reorganise this accommodation
as part of the whole scheme.
Special finishes were required to meet the high standards necessary in a centre of this
sort; it was also thought that to some degree the Centre would provide an opportunity to
demonstrate to general practitioners types of wall and floor finishes and other amenities
which require little maintenance and which might be suitable for their surgeries. Cement
glaze was used on the walls and ceilings of the minor operations and nursing treatment
rooms and those rooms have anti-static earthed vinyl plastic floors. The walls of the
X-ray room were plastered with a barium based plaster and the doors reinforced with lead
sheet to prevent the penetration of radiation. Vinyl plastic fabric of various designs and
colours was used for other rooms with vinyl plastic floor tiles.
The cost of adaptations is given in table (v) but it will be appreciated that this figure is
no guide to the cost of setting up a similar centre in different circumstances.
Services provided at the Centre
The facilities of the Centre are available to any general practitioner who wishes to use
them and 106 local doctors have done so during the first year, sending 3,450 patients to the
Centre in respect of whom 6,081 investigations, etc., have been carried out (see table (1).
No doctors practise from the Centre.
Diagnostic facilities—The. diagnostic facilities which are provided enable general
practitioners to investigate more fully those patients who do not necessarily require a
specialist opinion, to follow-up patients who need repeated investigations to record their
progress and to make a single check on patients after certain illnesses; all without having
to make what may be thought at times to be an unnecessary use of busy hospital facilities.
This should be an incentive to better practice and there are other advantages for the
patients in the non-institutional atmosphere of the Centre and the fact that they do not
have to repeat their history to a strange doctor.
It is not part of the concept of the Centre to have consultant clinics but specialist opinion
is available to general practitioners when required from the part-time consultants who
supervise each department and the clinical reports which emanate therefrom.
The pathological laboratory provides services within the following range: haematology,
urine examinations, bacteriology and bone marrow aspirations—but certain investigations
such as blood grouping, tests for tubercle and diphtheria bacilli, etc., are referred to other
laboratories. During the year 1,886 investigations were carried out and a further 329
requests were referred elsewhere (table iii).
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