TY - JOUR T1 - Houldsworth Centre, Lanarkshire, Scotland: a new civic facility JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 200 LP - 201 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X684577 VL - 66 IS - 645 AU - Alec Logan AU - Rod Kemsley Y1 - 2016/04/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/645/200.abstract N2 - By 2015 our 1970s Wishaw Health Centre was no longer fit for purpose: too small with too few consulting rooms, no space for greatly expanded primary care.Houldsworth Centre, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland. ©Tricia Malley Ross Gillespie www.broaddaylightltd.co.ukSince joining my practice in 1988 consultant numbers in our local district general hospital have increased by a factor of five, but acute beds decreased by a third and long-stay beds in psychiatry and geriatrics almost completely closed with their patients now cared for in community settings. Also during this time undergraduate and general practice postgraduate teaching and training have moved into community settings. Our old building was simply inadequate for our increased clinical and teaching workload.The number of GPs in Wishaw Health Centre has remained the same since 1988. However, we now have three practice nurses instead of one, and treble the number of receptionists, administrators, and IT staff. We now teach students from two Scottish medical schools (Glasgow and Dundee), with Edinburgh to follow, and have billets for an FY2 and two specialist general practice trainees (ST1 and ST3). We have an annual postgraduate trainee from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and in 2016 will have visiting trainees from Japan and Ireland. In 2016 we welcome our first pharmacist in training.Our old building was also host to important community nursing services: district nurses, treatment room nurses, health visitors, community psychiatric nurses, midwives, and podiatry and physiotherapy care. All working in an out-of-date clinical environment. Other secondary care services with a strong role in community health care — psychiatry, community dentistry, community paediatrics — were scattered about the town in cramped and ageing premises. As were other public services: housing, our municipal bank, social services, and the Citizens Advice Bureau. Also unfit for purpose was our 1970s Wishaw Library, … ER -