Yeovil Diagnostic Centre

As part of work to tackle health inequalities and reduce waiting times across the NHS, this cutting-edge facility will offer local residents a one-stop shop for appointments to diagnose an array of illnesses.

The project showcased the added value Prime brings to a development – we met or exceeded every project target, programme date and financial performance metric during the development process.

NHS patients in east Somerset and west Dorset will benefit from quicker diagnoses, thanks to a new centre in Yeovil developed by Prime. Somerset NHS Foundation Trust had already brought down long waits for patients following the pandemic, but once open the new facility will make a big difference to the trust’s ability to diagnose people quickly and get them treated.

The centre is a modern state-of-the-art facility adjacent to Yeovil District Hospital that will provide more than 70,000 diagnostic tests and outpatient appointments a year, easing pressure on existing facilities within Yeovil Hospital. Open seven days a week, the centre will provide a range of diagnostic services, including MRI, CT, Ultrasound and X-ray and a comprehensive range of outpatients services, including consultation and treatment facilities, ECHO and ECG, and adult and paediatric audiology testing. It means that patients won’t need to go to busy hospitals for some diagnostic tests, freeing up capacity for patients who require more complex care.

The three-storey, 2,687m2 centre is the second standalone diagnostic facility in the county. Radiology and endoscopy services will be provided by InHealth – the UK’s largest specialist provider of diagnostic and healthcare solutions – with the trust providing all other diagnostic and outpatient consultation, treatment and testing services. Prime designed the building in partnership with the trust. InHealth will fit out the ground floor diagnostic space.

As the trust’s strategic estates partner, we worked within a tight seven-month design and development period to achieve financial close within the trust’s overarching programme and commercial requirements that had been set 12 months earlier as part of the business case approval process. This included the development of fully co-ordinated design and cost information and achieving the grant of full planning consent for the scheme. With new deadlines to meet every month, daily partnership working with the trust and contractors was pivotal to making the project achievable.

In line with Prime’s own policy, a minimum of 15% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) was targeted on the project although the final net gain achieved was actually +267%. To meet stringent Local Authority requirements, a site-wide scheme of sustainable urban drainage was developed that includes the use of attenuation tanks, a rain garden and the use of bio-retention planters. To further support the scheme’s environmental performance and net zero upfront embodied carbon design, there is a roof mounted solar PV array designed to provide 45 kilowatts peak power output, and an all-electric mechanical services strategy, including air source heat pumps and mechanical ventilation with heat recover to non-clinical areas.

The building achieved BREEAM Excellent design stage certification which puts it within the top 10% performing new- build non-domestic buildings in the country. It was designed from the outset to utilise Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) to enable the scheme to be delivered within a condensed construction period, ensuring that the Trust and the local community can benefit from the centre as soon as possible.