St Andrews Health Centre. Pic: Anja McLoughlin
A new health centre with a walk in facility has opened in Tower Hamlets on the site of a disused Victorian hospital.
St Andrews Health Centre, which is part of the Barratt Homes new housing complex, occupies the former site of St Andrews hospital to the south of Bromley-by-Bow underground station. It replaces the previous NHS GP surgery and walk-in centre located on Devas Street.
Due to remain open 7 days a week, every day of the year, the health centre will offer services such as a pharmacy, GP surgery, health visitors, psychology, adult community nursing and diabetes clinic. It will be run by NHS North East London.
Speaking of the opening, resident GP Dr Sam Everington, who also chairs NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group, said it was “an excellent health centre for the people of Bromley-by-Bow.”
Local residents who have visited the health centre said they were impressed with the new facilities.
Tom Cleaver. Pic: Anja McLoughlin
Tom Cleaver, 28, a designer from Mile End said: “The new centre is great. I was a member of the old surgery and it was so run down, not very nice. The new place is bright and spacious and far more pleasant”
Richard Wright. Pic: Anja McLoughlin
Richard Wright, 46, an accountant from Bromley-by-Bow said: ”Very efficient, I was in and out. There’s an adjoining pharmacy which is very clever”
St Andrews hospital, previously known as the Polar and Stepney Asylum for the insane, was founded in 1873, one of 6 district asylums. In the first year of its opening the asylum had one doctor and no trained nurses.
Although the hospital was renamed St Andrews in 1921, it remained an asylum until 1933 when it became property of the council before being passed on to the NHS partnerships.
In 1929 new maternity wards were introduced and in the 1980s an accident and emergency department opened on site. The hospital fell into disrepair throughout the 1990s, gradually ceasing operation. It was finally closed in 2006.
The 3 hectare site of development, named St Andrews Bromley-by-Bow, is host to 964 sustainable new homes, the health centre which was funded by a local government ‘planning gain’ subsidy, and a new ‘community’ space of parks and gardens.
