New health hub on former Debenhams site 'exciting'

A new health hub in the site of a town's former Debenhams will make "a huge difference" to patients and how long they wait for treatment, the firm behind it says.

Construction began earlier this week on Basildon Health Centre in the Eastgate Centre, which will offer services such as MRI scans, CT scans, X-rays and ultrasounds, as well as outpatient services and operating theatres.

The first phase, due to be completed by the autumn, can offer 50,000 appointments a year for the NHS and private patients.

"Everyone's very excited to see this open and see what we can do with it," said Michael Catling, chief operating officer of Thrive Health Hubs, which is building the new centre.

The first phase of the centre will be on the ground floor of the former Debenhams, which closed in 2021. It is expected to grow to a capacity for 150,000 appointments a year once it is fully developed.

Up to 350 new jobs would be created at that stage too, with 80 of those positions becoming available during phase one.

Catling said the centre's facilities would help to provide "extra capacity particularly in diagnostics", which was an area the NHS had recently been focussing on.

"This is very much about complementing the current NHS offer at the hospital [Basildon University] and recognising the number of patients that are now waiting across the NHS," he said.

"We're working very closely with the NHS to make sure that everything that we do integrates with their systems."

Catling said the location of the new hub would be key to its success.

"I think the offer to put it right in the middle of town where access is so good is really attractive," he said.

"I think we can offer a much more supportive, relaxing environment by being co-located [in the Eastgate Centre].

"And obviously what we can offer the town is a big footfall of patients coming through and family members and carers who will then access other amenities in the town."

He added that NHS patients being treated at the centre would be funded on the national tariff model, but Thrive Health Hubs' aim was to "always offer really good value to the NHS" and to "create models that are financially sustainable for the NHS and don't become a drain".

Thrive Health Hubs said it had been providing a range of community health services since 2014 and was founded by a group of clinical staff in the NHS in south Essex.

The company is also due to open Southend Community Diagnostic Centre at the site of the former Argos store in the city's Victoria Shopping Centre in the coming months.

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