Description
The vision for the new centre was for a 'multi-disciplinary one-stop breast clinic … in a human and reassuring environment in which quality is key - in terms not only of the building fabric and finishes but of providing a patient-friendly service.' The result is exactly that - a coolly elegant building with logic, dignity and sensitivity, and an experience for patients that begins and ends with the peaceful square and its gentle fountain at the centre of the quadrangle of which the four-storey West Wing forms one side. The square, with the fountain, remains an orientation point throughout the patient's visit. In the ground floor waiting area is a franchised coffee bar; chairs are arranged not as in a traditional waiting room in rows or pushed against the wall but set out more like a hotel lounge where patients can chat with some privacy to accompanying family members or friends. On the first floor, with its own waiting area, are 12 consulting rooms, a changing room and a counselling room. The second floor houses diagnostic services, while staff and office areas occupy the third.
Throughout the building, furniture and fittings, colour schemes, fabrics and carpets have all been selected to give the interior an ambience of calm and comfort. All this is supported by an outstanding art programme aimed at helping to distract visitors from the anxieties which inevitably surround a visit to the centre. This was managed by Vital Arts, an arts project operating on behalf of the Trust. Selected artists include Rowena Dring, Cornelia Parker, David Batchelor and DJ Simpson.
Bringing breast cancer services into a single building allowed the introduction of other facilities which would have been more difficult to achieve in the dispersed service the new centre replaced. These included: counselling rooms where patients can go with members of their family and hospital staff to come to terms their diagnosis; a separate exit to enable patients given bad news to leave without facing the waiting area; a 'boutique', drawing on American experience, where it is possible to see, and have a fitting for, well-designed clothing, wigs and prostheses in dignified privacy; a resource centre, providing information and support; and a conference room with audio-visual facilities for use by both by the department and the hospital as a whole.
The gross internal floor area is 2,792m2.
