Brownsover - Engineering Community Healthcare from a Political Hot Potato

We are now a little over half way through the construction of the new and much needed Medical Centre at Brownsover, Rugby. Politically this has been a proverbial hot potato that has left the residents of Brownsover without local medical facilities since 2015.

The Brownsover Patients Action Group have been understandably active in canvassing all quarters to get something done. The plans for new facilities have been a long but financially shallow promise causing great concern within this part of Rugby.

Mark Pawsey (MP) has been hugely supportive, raising the problem in Parliament a number of times, lastly in November last year when he addressed the Rt Hon Theresa May in PM’s Question Time. She confirmed NHSE to be on the case and that action would be delivered ‘soon’.

Soon was a long time coming but ‘ground was finally cut’ at a ceremony on 16^th February providing belated Valentines wishes to the Brownsover Patients Action Group and the people of Brownsover.

Construction is being undertaken by Greswolde Construction to Civil and Structural solutions engineered by JMS Engineers.

“To be involved in any engineering project is a challenge rewarded by the satisfaction of our plans being implemented for the cost effective Civil and Structural solutions we design. It is doubly rewarding when it means so much to a community like this” said Bhavin Parmar of JMS Engineers (Midlands).

Amish Rana (who engineered much of the finer details within the plans) totally endorsed the community service satisfaction adding “…it was also an environmental feather in the cap that the Brownsover project got an ‘Excellent’ certification from BREEAM.”

The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (thankfully acronymed to BREEAM). They assess the asset’s environmental, social and economic sustainability performance, using standards developed by BRE. Engineering solutions to deliver such high specifications is indeed rewarding.

The £2.3 million development delivers 624 square metres of GP surgery and 100 sq m of community facility with parking and landscaping.

Look out for the second part of this story. It will be less of a social and political observation and certainly more ‘engineeringly correct’.