New Private Clinic To Open In Chiswick
Top HCA executive tells us about the forthcoming outpatients and diagnostic centre
The building before work started
A Chiswick-based senior executive with the global healthcare giant HCA has been telling chiswickw4.com about the company's plans to open the area's first private clinic.
Aida Yousefi, who will be CEO of the new Chiswick Outpatients Centre said they hope to open the diagnostic and outpatients centre on Chiswick High Road before the end of this year.
HCA is currently refurbishing the five-storey building, a 26,000 square foot space, at 347-353 Chiswick High Road, opposite Halfords. The building, Bond House, was formerly home to Universal music and Decca Records and has 40 car park spaces to the rear.
The clinic will be similar to the group's range of outpatients and diagnostic centres such the Harley Street Outpatients Centre or the Chelsea Outpatients Centre. It will not be an inpatient facility.
Aida, who was raised in South Africa and has lived in Chiswick for eighteen years, said the new centre would focus on whole-family care, from paediatrics to care for elderly patients. It would give locals in Chiswick and surrounding areas the opportunity to have speedy diagnosis and treatment without having to travel far from home. She said they believed there was a strong demand in the area for such a Centre.
There will be walk-in GP clinic on the ground floor as well as a range of consultants who will hold regular clinics, with state-of-the art diagnostic scanning and other equipment. A 'patient pathway', system would see doctors able to refer patients for x-rays, scans, and other investigations on site.
Asked about the rates that would be charged, she said it was too early to comment. But it was likely fees would be in line with similar centres.
(A walk in private clinic in Harley Street is listed as charging £135 for consultation, while the Syon Clinic on the A4 charges £150 for a GP consultation).
As a mother of two young boys, she said she fully understood that it was becoming increasingly difficult to access healthcare quickly. "Sometimes you need to have a problem sorted without having to go to a big hospital, for example an x-ray or scan if you are worried about a child with an injury and wonder whether there is a fracture.
"The NHS is amazing, but it can only do so much. A clinic like this gives people the opportunity of choice about their healthcare."
HCA worked closely with health insurers and it was not always the case that private healthcare was only available to wealthy people, she added.
The new Centre will remain open until 8 pm in the evenings and there will also be weekend appointments. The clinic has car-parking to the rear of the building.
Since joining HCA in 2002 Aida has held a number of senior management roles including Cancer Pharmacy Manager, Director of Clinical Services and Clinical Trials. A pharmacist by training, she has worked in hospitals in Johannesburg as well as in the UK.
In 2010 she extended her role to manage Cancer Services for Harley Street Clinic and became Chief Operating Manager for all outpatients areas including diagnostics, radiation, imaging and cancer services. Aida was promoted to Chief Executive Officer at the Portland Clinic last January as well as remaining CEO of the Harley Street clinics. She now takes the Chiswick centre under her mantle.
She said she loves living in Chiswick and her two sons are educated locally. They enjoy going to Chiswick House and Gardens, and all the other advantages of living in W4, such as being close to the Thames, and the variety of shops and restaurants on the High Road close to their home.
HCA International is based in the UK and operates six top hospitals in central London, the Harley Street Clinic, London Bridge Hospital, The Portland, the Lister, the Princess Grace hospital, and the Wellington Hospital.
It also runs a range of outpatient and diagnostic centres at Devonshire Street, Old Broad Street, the Brentwood Medical Centre in Essex and one at Sevenoaks in Kent. It recently opened one at The Shard in London.
Meetings with local residents have already been held and more are planned as the centre nears its opening date. They plan to open in November with a full launch in January 2018.
According to Hanover Green specialist property consultancy, HCA signed for the entire 26,000 square feet on a 25-year lease with a break option after 15 years. The rent is £47.50 per square foot.
HCA Inc., also known as Hospital Corporation of America, is the world's largest independent hospital company with a turnover of around $30 billion, 164 hospitals and 106 outpatient centres, serving 14 million patients a year.
The company also has partnerships with NHS hospitals.
Its most recent acquisition was the £33m Platinum Medical Centre, part of the Wellington Hospital at St John's Wood, north London. The £33m centre is 50,000 square feet spread over seven floors, and has capacity for 70,000 outpatients annually.
August 20, 2017