Covid: NHS clinic in Beales Poole store to tackle waiting lists

The top floor of a department store is being converted into an NHS clinic in a bid to reduce waiting lists that have grown throughout the pandemic.

University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) is creating the hub in Beales, Poole, that will see about 130 patients a day.

Services will include breast screening and diagnostics for orthopaedics, ophthalmology and dermatology.

In June, there were more than 110,000 people on NHS waiting lists across Dorset, including 82,000 at UHD.

Ashleigh Boreham, deputy director of design and transformation at Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, described it as a "national first".

"Using retail space is going on elsewhere in the country but to work within an existing retail space and create something built simply for the outpatients, for diagnostics and assessment, is quite different and I think it is a first," he said.

Mr Boreham said the project built upon ideas used to build Nightingale Hospitals and vaccination centres in repurposed buildings.

Mark Mould, chief operating officer of University Hospitals Dorset, said: "Last year our hospitals had to respond to the rise of Covid-19 and completely redesign our services and estate across our hospitals.

"This meant we had to, very reluctantly, cancel many appointments.

"With all the social distancing guidelines, our hospitals are not going to be able to tackle the subsequent rise in our waiting lists so we needed to think big to deal with the problem."

The department store, within the Dolphin Centre shopping mall, is one of 23 that closed after retail chain Beales fell into administration but the Poole branch reopened in August last year under new ownership.

The clinic, which will be run by up to 30 staff and 21 volunteers, is expected to see its first patients in November or December.

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust manages the three main hospitals in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.

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