Change & Transformation in the Public Sector
Delivery of Health on the Highstreet; bringing outpatient services out of the hospital and into a tired town centre shopping mall. Improving patient access and rejuvenating the town centre.
In October 2025, Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust opened a high-street based outpatient centre in the heart of Barnsley town centre – delivering a structurally innovative model that simultaneously transformed elective care delivery and accelerated town-centre regeneration.
The Trust faced a landlocked 1970s hospital site, fragmented facilities, alongside significant parking and congestion pressures. Outpatients accounted for the majority of hospital activity, yet productivity was constrained by the estate and demand forecasts showed capacity would be exceeded within seven years.
Akeso partnered with the Trust to design and deliver a shared outpatient centre bringing together ophthalmology, rheumatology, dermatology and orthotics in one location. Instead of simply relocating existing clinics, we redesigned how care is delivered. This ensured the new centre could accommodate rising demand sustainably, rather than replicating existing space constraints in a new building.
The transformation enabled clinic room usage to rise from 77% to 90%, missed appointments to reduce by 22%, and unnecessary follow-up appointments to fall by 20%. Relocating services to the town centre has freed up scarce space within the main site, creating flexibility for higher-acuity services while easing congestion and parking pressures.
Beyond healthcare, the centre has repurposed vacant town-centre space, generated c.150k additional annual visits and approximately £2.5m in local spending. The scheme demonstrates how estate strategy, clinical redesign and place-based regeneration can be integrated to deliver impactful and sustainable public-sector transformation.
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