Alfred Barrow Health Centre opens in Cumbria

The £15m GP and primary health care centre in Barrow-in-Furness has completed and is now available for the public.

Work began on 53,900 sq ft site in early 2018 by contractor ESH Construction.

The centre was built on the site of the former Alfred Barrow School, which has been refurbished and integrated into the overall health centre extension. Many of the original Victorian features have been preserved, and it now houses much of the office accommodation and staff welfare services. The extension houses patient-facing services and clinical spaces.

It also functions as a response base for the ambulance service and houses a pharmacy.

The site was developed by ELift Cumbria, a public private partnership involving Community Health Partnerships as the public sector partner.

The centre is the fourth facility to be developed in Cumbria by ELift Cumbria.

Mark Day, chief operating officer of CHP, said: “The health centre will support the provision of integrated care for the people of Barrow and provides a first-class working environment for those that care for them.

“ELift Cumbria is an innovative company which has made the very best of a challenging site that the whole town can be proud of.”

Tristan Firth, ELift Cumbria’s development director, said: “Given the economic backdrop, the extensive change within the NHS and the nature of the site, we knew at the outset that this would be a challenging project.

“That we’ve delivered a building in which the whole community can be proud is testament to the collaborative approach taken by all the stakeholders and the nature of the full service the company has and is providing.”