A consortium led by Kajima Partnerships has received a full planning and decision notice to build a new £30m community health centre in Newry, County Down.
Occupying c. 12,500sq m, the new centre will bring together numerous much-needed health services for the local area and will house up to eight individual GP practices.
The Community Treatment and Care Centre, as it will be known, will additionally provide a number of outpatient services, mental health, and children’s health and social services, as well as physiotherapy, a genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic, dentistry, diabetic clinic, and hydrotherapy unit.
The site for the new facility is located within easy reach of Newry city centre and with strong transport connections to ensure easy accessibility.
The centre will help to relieve critical pressures on acute care settings, minimise bed blocking, and reduce waiting times by providing effective access to step-down care and integrated outpatient services.
Kajima Partnerships, a specialist in delivering and managing innovative buildings for the public sector, is the main developer, working in partnership with O’Hare & McGovern to form GPG O’Hare, the consortium that has been selected by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust to build and manage the project.
The consortium continues to draw on its expertise in delivering community treatment and care centres in Northern Ireland, having recently passed its one-year construction anniversary for a new community care centre in Lisburn.
And, with the consortium expecting to move onsite this year, the shovel-ready project is expected to generate numerous jobs during its two-year construction timeline, and once the centre is up and running.
Jitesh Patel, social care sector lead at Kajima Partnerships, said: “We are delighted to be working as part of the GPG O’Hare consortium and drawing on our collective experience in delivering community treatment and care services.
“Newry Community Treatment and Care Centre will provide vital access to step-down care, outpatient treatment, and mental health and children’s services which will be crucial to supporting the local community after COVID-19.
“As a shovel-ready project, the new health centre will also help the local economy recover from the impact of coronavirus.
“The pandemic has shown the true importance of robust, resilient and flexible integrated healthcare and community services, which is why we are proud to be working hard to begin construction, create new jobs, and provide first-class services to people in Newry and the surrounding area.”