New health hub 'better for staff and patients'

A new NHS health hub has opened in Oxford - the first of its kind in Oxfordshire.

Murray House, near Kidlington, is now the home of a range of services for patients in the north of the city, including district nurses, podiatry and children's and adult specialist therapy.

Buildings in the Summertown and Jericho areas of Oxford, which previously housed some of the services, will be sold.

Peter Gibson, from Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, said the new hub on the Jordan Hill Business Park would provide "excellent care" and help with the recruitment and retention of staff.

"Attracting staff is hard at the best of times," he said. "Students are taught in a multi-disciplinary way - and that's what they would expect to see in a workplace.

"Our teams, sitting together, can actually start to talk to each in a way they just didn't before because they were located in different parts of the city."

The trust plans to create three hubs in the city, one at the existing East Oxford Health Centre on Manzil Way and another for the south in the Blackbird Leys area.

Mr Gibson said Murray House was "a much, much better facility [and] easier for people to get to, with much better public transport links".

Katie Lennon, who runs the reception team at Murray House, said a patient "might be able to see a podiatrist at 10 o'clock and a district nurse at half past 10".

She said Oxford Health will use Murray House as "a learning tool" so future hubs will be "equipped with as much information as they can".

Staff started moving in toward the end of April, with the first patients arriving by 5 May.

An official opening ceremony is expected to be held later this year.

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