A new healthcare facility in Sible Hedingham, expected to be developed as the new home for Hedingham Medical Centre in Spring 2023, will give patients and residents a modern centre for NHS services that will deliver healthcare to the local community for many years to come.
- OneMedical Property, the founding arm of OneMedical Group, was selected in Spring this year by Braintree District Council to develop the medical centre for the Hedingham Medical Centre practice on the site off Osier Way, which has been safeguarded for the development for a number of years.
- Working with the Hedingham Medical Centre team and the CCG, the OneMedical Property Design team have strived to design a building that delivers improved healthcare facilities for patients of the practice and the wider communities they serve.
- Following completion of the building, anticipated to be in April 2023, the GP partners at Hedingham Medical Centre will relocate their services to the surgery, offering the community a long-awaited and purpose-built medical facility.
- Once built, the medical centre will have the capacity to serve over 10,000 patients from Sible and Castle Hedingham and the surrounding villages, ensuring these communities have high-quality, sustainable and safe NHS services. The building has been designed for the long term with room for growth.
- The building will comprise two stories of clinical and practice administration space, as well as a dispensary with external and internal access, and includes plans to support staff and residents to make effective use of the site for parking and the landscaped areas.
- The building will have the highest sustainability standards. The OneMedical Property Design team are working towards Net Zero and a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. BREEAM is the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for master planning buildings. Find out more here.
- The building has been designed to be modern, while sympathetic to the look and feel of the local area.
High-quality, sustainable and safe NHS services
The new building will be an energy-efficient, sustainable and modern Medical Centre for the local community to be proud of. A crucial part of offering services that will meet the community’s current and emerging health care needs is making sure the Hedingham Medical practice team and their patients have a long-term, fit-for-purpose facility, which will adapt and grow with the needs of the community they serve.
The Hedingham Medical Centre team currently work from Falcon Square in Castle Hedingham, Hilton House in Sible Hedingham and Bridge Street in Great Yeldham. The partners and team have been working with Braintree District council and NHS Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), for some time on re-locating the combined teams to a single, long term site.
Since their appointment as specialist healthcare property partner, OneMedical Property have collaborated with the Hedingham Medical Centre to ensure the new building fully meets the needs of the practice’s patients, staff and the wider communities they serve. From a start in Spring this year, OneMedical Property’s Design Team have progressed the designs and a full planning application has now been submitted.
The new, fully accessible Medical Centre will offer:
- Parking facilities, an ambulance bay, drop-off zone, charging stations and a cycle shelter;
- Dispensary serving prescriptions during the centre open times;
- Bat and bird boxes to support local biodiversity;
- Attractive external landscaping that includes a community garden.
Different building, same doctors
OneMedical Property and the practice have run virtual meetings for residents to share details about the project, and to listen to and answer questions. In addition, they are working closely with the Parish, District and County councils, residents and local healthcare partners to take everyone’s feedback into account. Questions about the development can be shared directly with the team by filling out the feedback form on the microsite.
Dr Ruth Silcox, Senior Partner at Hedingham Medical Centre said: “We are thrilled that we have been able to submit a planning application for our new Surgery development in Sible Hedingham. We are working closely with OneMedical Group to build a state-of-the art clinical facility on the former Rippers Yard site. This will bring all our services under one roof and allow us to improve our services to our patient population.”
Dan Doherty, Deputy Joint Accountable Officer for the Mid and South Essex CCGs and Alliance Director for Mid Essex, said: “The local NHS is pleased to see continuing progress for this project, which brings a modern GP surgery to the Hedinghams and surrounding villages. We’re grateful to everyone who has shared their opinion, whether supportive or constructive criticism, or about a specific concern. “We are working with OneMedical Property, Hedingham Medical Centre and Braintree District Council to ensure the developing plans reflect the community’s needs as far as possible, and that appropriate engagement with residents continues.”
Alex Caruso, Lead Designer of the OneMedical Property Design Team for the Hedingham Medical Centre, (and Managing Director of ACA Architects said): “We are delighted with the collaboration established with local stakeholders to develop the proposed design. The engagement sessions with the Medical Practice team, the Parish Councils, Mid and South Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and with the Braintree Planning Department have been instrumental to achieve a design which will benefit the local community as a whole. We look forward to continued engagement for the following stages.”
Rachel Beverley-Stevenson, Executive Chair and Property Director at OneMedical Group, said: “We’re excited to submit our full planning application based on local feedback and engagement with the community. As a specialist healthcare property developer and long-term landlords, we work very closely with the practice, patients, councillors, stakeholders, and community groups to be as inclusive as possible. We have answered the points raised, taking into account the planners’ and practice team’s feedback, which has resulted in submitting the full planning application now. We appreciate everyone’s input so far and look forward to receiving more over the coming weeks. Moreover, we are very proud to have been chosen as the development partner and long-term landlord for this long needed, and awaited, healthcare facility, which has been designed to positively contribute to its local surroundings and to facilitate the practice team in delivering high quality healthcare.”
OneMedical Property will share details of upcoming virtual engagement events to talk about the project. In addition, patients and residents can email Feedback@onemedicalgroup.co.uk with questions and to register for the events. To stay up-to-date with the building progression, please visit this page.
