Community Diagnostic Centre at Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre

Birmingham’s first Community Diagnostic Centre is open following a successful refurbishment and reconfiguration programme led by Prime. The development offers local residents a one-stop shop for appointments to diagnose an array of illnesses as part of work to tackle health inequalities and reduce waiting lists across the NHS.

More than 45,000 patients will benefit from better care every year following Prime’s work on the new £2.18 million CDC, which provides cutting-edge diagnostic imaging technology for x-ray, MRI and ultrasound, alongside echo-cardiograms and access to blood tests. The CDC is open seven days a week for outpatient diagnostic appointments, providing convenient access and free on-site parking for patients referred by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB).

This was a refurbishment of unused space in an operational health building commissioned by Prime’s Birmingham and Solihull LIFT (BaS LIFT) partnership, delivered through a Management Services Agreement (MSA). This is a contract between Prime and BaS LIFT in which Prime provides management, administrative and operational resources to BaS LIFT to handle tasks such as billing, compliance and facility management. The primary purpose of the MSA is to outline the responsibilities and expectations of both parties, ensuring clarity, legal protection, financial transparency and compliance.

We were the clear line of communication between everyone involved in the reconfiguration and Prime ensured UHB clinicians helped to develop the specification of their new rooms. We also helped them to understand the Trust was not taking ownership of the building and so any changes they wanted to make would be delivered by LIFT.

The existing building had no capacity to provide the enhanced ventilation required, so we installed new air handling units to service a room for the diagnosis of respiratory illnesses. These modern clinical rooms now benefit from specialist air filtration – so by installing filtration in the AHU, rather than locally to serve just one room, all the clinical rooms along that side of the corridor now benefit from enhanced air filtration, improving the level of flexible services that can be delivered. We also installed sustainable, smart LED lighting with presence/absence detection and automatic brightnes settings according to external daylight conditions.

Prime led the installation of state-of-the-art equipment that increases the region’s diagnostic capacity, including a digital radiography x-ray system for patients needing a chest or osteoarthritis x-ray. It means 16,000 patients a year can now have x-ray appointments at the new centre, helping to ensure that patients are seen faster, with changing areas situated next to the x-ray rooms to ensure privacy and space. For people needing more than one type of scan, the centre aims to provide these in one visit, reducing travelling and waiting times for diagnoses.

As well as the CDC, the building accommodates two GP practices, Forward Thinking Birmingham, HRCG Care Group, a Primary Care Hub and Birmingham Community Healthcare physiotherapy services, meaning patients living in the east of Birmingham now benefit from appointments sooner and closer to home. Our input increased the lettable area in the building, reducing occupancy costs for the ICB. It is one of the biggest centres of its kind in England and a fine example of what can be achieved in partnership.