View report page

Existing health centres suffer from the ambitious planning which
was in accord with the wave of optimism accompanying the launching
of the National Health Service, and the premises are often far too
extensive and expensive to be reproduced on the scale originally
envisaged.
Much of the accommodation is to be shared between general
practitioners and the local authority staff, and we hope that most
parts of the building will eventually be in use for the greater part of
the day. This will, of course, be reflected in lower building costs and
running expenses but, much more important to my mind, there will
be the opportunity for very close integration of what hitherto have
been two separate services.
There will be one main entrance, with a reception desk facing
the doors. The reception and secretarial staff will cater both for the
general practitioners' patients and those attending the local authority's
clinics.
An effort has been made to get away from the traditional waiting
hall with its flavour of a hospital out-patients department and we are
suggesting instead a waiting space which makes the best use of its
southern aspect, and the views across the school playing fields. For
functional purposes this space will be divided by low partition walls.
A Health Visitors' office, welfare room and medical officers' room
form a convenient maternity and child welfare suite The medical
work, both at ante-natal and infant welfare sessions, could well be
carried out by the family doctors for their own patients if the Local
Executive Council decide to carry out their original intention to
appoint two doctors to the estate.
No special provision has been made for a school children's minor
ailment room. Initially, a spare room upstairs will be used for this
purpose, whilst eventually, when general practitioners conduct surgeries
in the building, there is no reason why the children should
not consult their own family doctors, and receive any necessary treatment
in the treatment room from nurses provided by the local health
authority.
Upstairs, provision has been made for a school dentist and
ultimately for a general dental practitioner to be employed by the
local executive council. The latter's surgery will provide a convenient
temporary home for the school medical officers, and for school medical
examinations if—as I fear—you are not able to provide adequate
Page 12