A “patient-friendly” health centre will be built to replace three ageing Aberdeen GP surgeries at a cost of more than £8 million.
Council planning bosses have signed off on proposals for the cutting edge facility to be built on Howes Road in Northfield.
An acre of land next to Orchard Brae and Heathryburn schools has been earmarked for the development.
It will replace the downtrodden Denburn Medical Centre, Northfield Surgery and Mastrick Clinic.
Local health chiefs unveiled the scheme in 2019 and had hoped for it to be open by the start of this year.
But it emerged last December that it had been delayed by the pandemic.
The Greenferns plans will mean a change of routine for thousands of patients, but documents lodged with the local authority explain how the new centre should benefit them.
What will patients get out of it?
Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership (ACHSCP) says the centre will be “user-friendly” and “patient-orientated”.
They describe the “de-institutionalised” layout as being “welcoming and extremely simple to navigate”.
It will also use more video consultation, so there will be less need to travel to appointments for many.
What if I don’t want to travel to Northfield to visit the doctor?
A report which went before councillors in 2019 detailed the “poor condition of the current Denburn health centre”.
It said the building was “unfit for purpose, with a limited period of operational use” – with “limited life” left in the Northfield and Mastrick premises too.
The papers said they have “no further expansion space”.
However, it was said that Denburn patients who live in the city centre and don’t wish to travel to Northfield will be found places at the Health Village on Frederick Street.
How will this new Northfield health centre affect staff?
The planning documents say the welfare of staff has been key to forming the design of the new super-sized practice.
The complex is shaped to “enhance their social welfare, given the amount of time they will be in the building and given the often stressful practice they might be involved in”.
How big is Northfield health centre going to be?
Drawings submitted with the proposals show there will be eight consulting rooms for GPs, further rooms for nursing staff and a waiting area for patients inside the one-and-a-half storey building.
The proposals include 18 parking spaces for staff and a further 36 for patients and visitors.
ACHSCP says the “expansive” site will offer countryside views to the north, south and west.
Along with the nearby schools, they say it will “create a community-based campus”.
You can see the plans for yourself here.
