Portslade in the Past: Portslade Health Centre

05 April 2021

Portslade Health Centre

Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2021)

Portslade Health Centre was erected on the site of St Andrew’s Vicarage and grounds in Church Road. It cost £460,000 to build, and opened in May 1982. It was intended to serve a catchment area of Portslade, Hove and Southwick. There were to be five doctors, as well as health visitors, district nurses, chiropody surgeries, and child health clinics.

copyright © G.Osborne
This early 1900s photograph showing St Andrew’s Church and its former vicarage (now the site of Portslade Health Centre), note the sheep grazing in the field in front of the Church
With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection.

In April 1991 Portslade Health Centre became the first, and only surgery in the Brighton Health District, to run its own budget. There were 14,000 patients on its books, and it was allocated £1,318,525. It also negotiated contracts with the private Avenue Clinic, Southlands Hospital, and the Sussex County Hospital in order to reduce waiting times.

Perhaps balancing the budget became too much of a responsibility because although it had been a great success, in February 1992 it was announced that Portslade Health Centre was giving up its fund-holding status for at least twelve months.

In April 1992 it transpired that Dr Kirkland was leaving the practice, and would run his own surgery at the County Clinic in Old Shoreham Road, Portslade. Apparently, there had been a disagreement with his partners.

Portslade and Covid-19

Portslade found itself in the forefront of the local fight against the pandemic. First of all, a testing site was set up in the grounds of the site recently occupied by King’s School. This was up and running by December 2020. Of course there were problems at the site with regard to vehicular access because there could be no private cars parked on site, and there were restrictions in the use of Mile Oak Road outside the testing centre, which caused heavier traffic along Mile Oak Gardens. However, there is a frequent bus service – and as they used to say in the forties ‘Don’t you know there’s a war on?’

Then Portslade Medical Centre became a vaccination hub. It must have been something of a logistical nightmare to organise because there were so many factors that had to be taken into account. Team-leader Shilpa Patel began the process of planning the vaccination hub on New Year’s Eve, and it took two weeks before the preparatory work was signed off. She works with a team of medical professionals, as well as some volunteers. It is an astonishing achievement that in January 2021 the hub was in full swing and before the end of the month all patients on their books over the age of 80 had received their first jab, and there had been no allergic reactions.

There is a delivery twice a week to Portslade Health Centre of 1,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. This vaccine has to be stored for 72 hours at a temperature of minus 70C. There is a two-hour time scale once the vaccine has been removed from the freezer, for it to be diluted for use. After that there is precisely six hours in which the vaccine can safely be administered. It is a somewhat tight schedule, and organisational skills are at a premium to keep everything running smoothly. Fortunately, there are four hubs, and thus four patients can be vaccinated at the same time. It would take three months to get everybody vaccinated at the present rate of supply, but Shilpa Patel hoped their delivery numbers might be increased to 2,000 doses. By March 2021 patients were already receiving their second jabs.

Sources

Argus (28/1/21)

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Mr G.Osborne