Decision details

Delivery of health facilities that can meet the needs of the current and future population of Colindale has had a difficult history in relation to finding any one solution that can work with all the complex factors that influence the ability for NHS England (and its predecessor organisations) to formally agree to take on a new or replacement health centre.

A potential new health centre was built at the former Colindale Hospital site (known as ‘Pulse’), but could not be adopted for financial and clinical reasons, so the space was turned over to commercial uses.  Further attempts to negotiate the terms for an appropriate facility struggled to fit requirements, governance and/or timescales for delivery of all the parties needing to be involved in the decision-making process.

The need for additional primary care (particularly GP) capacity in the Colindale area is increasing as more of the planned new development is delivered.  Furthermore current development timescales would suggest that the existing Grahame Park Health Centre may need to be demolished in 2018 linked to the redevelopment of Grahame Park concourse; meaning a replacement for that facility will need to be agreed and in place by that time.

In order to ensure the right health outcomes for Colindale, it is necessary to undertake a full business case, public consultation and planning approval process as required by NHS England (NHSE) to identify, agree and secure delivery of the most appropriate facilities for delivery of modern health services.  This process will happen in parallel with planning applications for a number of the larger development sites, enabling a few delivery options.

There is a significant amount of work required to be completed to agree the options appraisal, outline business case and then full business case stages of the process to agree the appropriate means of delivering primary care services in Colindale.  The Council needs to take a greater coordination role to ensure the range of public bodies involved in primary care services work together and undertake the necessary reviews to deliver a joined-up response.  It is therefore proposed that a small amount of received planning contributions from development in Colindale can underwrite the funding of this coordination role.

In November 2014 NHSE agreed to transfer £90,000 to Barnet to support the development of the business case, and in particular the options appraisal.  This report is intended to agree this use of these funds, authorise the completion of relevant procurement matters required to secure completion of the full business case, and allocation of S106 funds.