Multidisciplinary input on 6.8 m sterling pounds conversion

With substantial capital funding for new build NHS healthcare facilities increasingly scarce, many Trusts are now focusing ever harder on maximising use of existing space, and, where it is not being effectively used, on converting it for new or alternative clinical and non-clinical use. In an excellent example of how an existing under-utilised building can be cost-effectively refurbished to provide valuable new facilities that improve patient care and meet growing demand, the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh (WWL) NHS Foundation Trust in north-west England recently converted a run-down, partly deserted, 1970s building to create a new diagnostic and treatment centre. The impressive facility combines women's healthcare services, urology and gastroenterology diagnosis and treatment, and a state-of-the-art endoscope reprocessing facilities, under one roof. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie reports.