Additional patient services are now being provided at Bellshill Community Health Clinic (CHC) following a successful space utilisation exercise.

The exercise, which was carried out earlier this year, looked at the space configuration at the centre and the suitability of the environment to carry out patient services.

Following the exercise a small investment of almost £40,000 was made to facilitate a better use of space and enable the delivery of more patient services in a community setting.

John Paterson, head of property and support services (PSSD), said: “As all staff will be aware, the financial climate means we have to make sure our estate is fully utilised to ensure that best value is achieved.

“When staff undertook this space utilisation work at Bellshill CHC, they identified areas of improvement and how we could utilise the clinic’s space along the same lines as we have in our new facilities like the Houldsworth Centres, Hunter Community Health Centre and Kilsyth Community Health Centre.

“It’s been hugely beneficial in allowing us to identify areas where staff require additional space and has brought a number of improvements for patients as the centre can now host additional clinical services such as community midwifery, child assessments, psychological services and immunisation as well as enable the John Street Surgery to remain at the clinic.”

The work is part of a wider space utilisation exercise which is being carried out across all NHS Lanarkshire sites with locality staff identifying how space is utilised on their site as part of the work to help identify improvements.