Designed with care: a campaign to raise standards in neighbourhood healthcare buildings

With the new health white paper signaling a strategic shift for healthcare in England, and services being provided closer to home instead of from big hospitals, CABE is launching a new campaign, Designed with care, to demonstrate the impact of high quality design on local healthcare facilities.

Treatment worth billions of pounds is being diverted from hospitals into neighbourhood facilities, in a new patient-centred approach which links health and social care closely together. But to date, this approach has rarely been reflected in the buildings and spaces through which the services are delivered.

CABE is calling for the built environment to be part of the debate on health and well-being. All new health centres, polyclinics and redeveloped community hospitals should provide a high quality facility for both patients and staff. This means in particular recognising the importance of integrating the planning and development of neighbourhoods with the design of individual healthcare buildings.

The campaign is accompanied by a new report, Designed with care: Design and neighbourhood healthcare buildings, which examines 15 of the best neighbourhood healthcare buildings in the country from a doctor's surgery to an NHS Walk-in Centre. The case studies show how high design quality creates a human, inclusive and reassuring environment, just when people need it most.

The campaign will also include the first built environment Health Week (15-20 May 2006), a week of debates and high level discussion involving health professionals and all those concerned with the built environment.

This will run alongside a series of practical workshops based in seven locations across the country examining neighbourhood healthcare; and the launch of new CABE research into the relationship between the quality of public parks and levels of physical activity.