BDP re-uses Nightingale hospital materials for diagnostic centre at former department store

BDP has overseen the completion of the first of 40 new NHS diagnostic centres in England using reclaimed and reused materials from the dismantled Nightingale hospitals.

The firm, which was behind many of the surge hospitals at the start of the pandemic including the first at the ExCel in London, designed a breast screening and diagnostics centre in a disused part of a department store at Poole in Dorset.

Paul Johnson, architect director at BDP who led the design of the ExCel Nightingale, said the idea was to repeat the exercise with the 39 other planned diagnostic centres, which it is hoped will reduce the pressure on the stretched health service.

He said the project, in vacant space at the Beales store in the town’s Dolphin Shopping Centre, was “the first of its kind in the country” and would “bring true health benefits to the community, reduce pressure on our NHS and give a welcome boost to the retail sector”.

BDP created the Poole facility working with University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust as well as its construction and facilities management partner CFES.

The diagnostic centre, which BDP says also contributes to the NHS’s net zero ambitions by providing multiple tests in one visit, reducing patients’ journey times, is now open.

Beales collapsed into administration two years ago, before the start of the pandemic, but three stores, including the one at Poole, resumed trading in summer 2020 under new ownership.