Muirhouse Health Centre – works begin on Monday

Plans for a new £12-million health and social care hub in the heart of Muirhouse have taken another major step forward and ground works will begin on Monday.

The planning application for the North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre was approved at the beginning of the month by the planning committee at the City of Edinburgh Council.

The new centre, a joint development between NHS Lothian and the City of Edinburgh Council, will bring increased health and social care services to the local community, including new GP accommodation and additional physiotherapy, podiatry, dentistry and child health services.

Peter Gabbitas, Joint Director, Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership said: “The North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre is another good example of the benefits of bringing health and social care services together on one site and in doing so putting people’s health and welfare at the forefront of our services.”

Cllr Ricky Henderson, Health, Social Care and Housing Convener, said: “We are committed to providing high quality health and social care within communities, and working in partnership with organisations such as NHS Lothian on projects like the North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre is a great way to ensure this happens.”

Hub South East Scotland Ltd is delivering the project and has appointed GRAHAM construction to build the new centre.

Paul McGirk, Chief Executive of Hub South East Scotland, said: “This is an exciting step in the development of the North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership with both NHS Lothian and the City of Edinburgh Council to make these plans a reality. We’ve been involved in this project from the beginning, so it’s exciting to reach this major milestone and we look forward to continuing our successful partnerships and making these plans a reality.”

Ground works will start next week to prepare the site for construction of the new Centre which NHS Lothian believe will start next year.

The works will involve digging up and working on pipes and cabling within certain areas of the site. The works will not impact on surrounding properties and while there will be activity on parts of the site over the coming months, none of these works relate to the actual construction of the facility.

These works will also involve the creation of a new entrance to the shopping centre service yard from Pennywell Gardens, demolition of two buildings (Pennywell Dentist and Pennywell House), closing Muirhouse Crescent and diverting existing utilities (gas, electricity, water, telecoms) within the site.

The project team is now working towards finalising contracts in January 2015. Work is then scheduled to start on the new Centre in early 2015 and it will open in autumn 2016.