11:33am Tuesday 25th May 2010
By Barry Nelson
The future of the region’s first NHS polyclinic may be in doubt after the Government said it is to review plans to reorganise health services. Health Editor Barry Nelson visited the One Life Hartlepool.
THEY call it an integrated health centre, but it looks like a mini-hospital.
Costing £22m and containing 400 rooms, One Life Hartlepool is an impressive, steel-clad polyclinic in the heart of a town which is due to lose its general hospital.
But if Hartlepool hospital is reprieved, could the new centre become a white elephant, duplicating hospital services provided on the other side of the town?
Built as part of a multi-million pound renewal of health services north of the river Tees, One Life Hartlepool aims to take pressure off hospitals and provide a wide range of health services close to where people live.
Now, those plans are in doubt after the new coalition Government announced that the Treasury is to review plans to build a £464m hospital at nearby Wynyard – and, by implication, retain hospitals in Hartlepool and Stockton that are earmarked for closure.
The new hospital is the key to proposed changes which would involve the scrapping of outdated hospitals in Hartlepool and Stockton in favour of the Wynyard development and a network of local polyclinics providing many of the out-patient, diagnostic and minor injury facilities previously available in hospitals.
But if hospitals in Hartlepool and Stockton are retained, it would call into question the need for the One Life Hartlepool centre – as well as similar polyclinics in Stockton and Billingham.
Many of the services being planned for One Life Hartlepool are due to be transferred from Hartlepool hospital.
Despite this uncertainty, One Life is opening to the public, starting with GP surgeries which have moved from older premises into the centre.
Bristling with operating theatres, a dental surgery, three GP surgeries, audiology studios and much more, One Life was designed to be used by thousands of patients a year.
One of the most significant features is the minor injuries unit, which should help cushion the blow when Hartlepool hospital’s accident and emergency department is closed.
Impressive as it is, One Life pales in comparison with the £464m Wynyard hospital due to open in 2014.
One Life, one of the final major NHS projects announced by the last government, is part of the Momentum project, whose overall aim is to provide more NHS care closer to people’s homes.
Experts and health bosses argue that this will deliver more efficient, more convenient and more cost-effective health care to most residents.
It will mean that a trip to the hospital is probably only something you would make if you had suffered a life-threatening accident, sudden illness or if you needed surgery.
Ali Wilson, director of health systems with NHS Hartlepool, has been planning One Life Hartlepool for five years.
She says: “There was quite a lot of scepticism when people around here first heard of what we were doing. Hopefully, when they see this fantastic, brilliant building, right in the centre of town, they will have the sense that they have not lost anything and that we have given them something they have deserved for a long time.”
Ms Wilson describes One Life as “an aspirational building”, which sends out the message that only the best is good enough for the people of Hartlepool.
“I suspect many people didn’t expect it to be on this size and scale,” she adds.
Built on the site of the former Barlows printworks in Park Road, One Life has a drop-off point outside the front door for disabled patients or parents with young children.
On the other side of Park Road, there is a large council-run car park and One Life is on a number of well-used bus routes through the town centre.
A tour of the three-storey centre reveals the sheer scale and diversity of the services.
Walking past three GP surgeries and a Boots pharmacy on the ground floor, you move on to the community respiratory assessment service office, which has brought a number of services across the town under one roof.
The service manages the large number of local people who suffer from respiratory problems, such as bronchitis.
WALKING past elegant ash benches, you climb the stairs to the first floor, where there are suites of rooms which will be used for counselling, and on to the centre’s musculo-skeletal services, covering feet, legs, joints and backs.
One of the most unusual features of the centre is a “gait lab”, a long corridor housing twin handrails which are used to test walking ability.
Then, it is on to the community dental service, which has a wheelchair-friendly surgery complete with a hydraulic hoist for disabled or very large patients.
A little further on is a suite of audiology speech booths for children and adults, along with hearing aid labs.
Next to speech therapy, there is the contraceptive, sexual health and genito-urinary service.
The centre also has two operating theatres for minor operations, along with two x-ray machines.
Elsewhere, there is a diabetic one-stop-shop featuring foot checks and retinal screening.
The centre will also house a heart failure clinic that will deal with heart rhythm problems.
The name of the clinic was suggested by a member of the public, who said: “You have only got one life, so look after it”.
“That’s what we hope One Life Hartlepool will help people to do,” says Ms Wilson.
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