With the launch of Corringham approaching over the coming months, the team recently invited Councillor’s Deborah Huelin and Shane Ralph from Thurrock Local Council on a site tour of the space to see the new facility and showcase the community-focused new build. The representatives were joined by representatives from partner organisations who will operate from Corringham upon opening.

The site walk outlined some of the key considerations made to support service users when they visit the new building, which included bariatric seating in all clinical spaces, ligature-safe door handles and clinical wash basins and key focus on purpose-fit clinical and non-clinical spaces for service users and practitioners to utilise at Corringham across a range of services

Rita Thakaria, Partnership Director, Adults Health and Social Care (Thurrock Council/EPUT/NELFT), shared feedback from the walkaround session:

“It was an incredibly positive experience for everyone who visited on the day, lots of our discussion focused on the critical need for coproduced community health and wellbeing spaces to support the Thurrock region.

“A key part of the tour was outlining and demonstrating our commitment to the community; both through our approaches to health and wellbeing models at Corringham – which means putting service users at the forefront of the decision-making process when it come to their health and wellbeing journey, and also through the use of physical space to support community-led activities, such as with our group spaces which have been designed as adjustable to facilitate the need for three individual spaces, or one larger space for seminars or larger gatherings – all freely available for community groups weekly.”

Councillors shared their experience of seeing the building for the first time. Cllr Deborah Huelin, Cabinet Member for Adults and Health, said

“Providing the best health and social care services for our residents is the key to our ambitious vision for Integrated Medical Wellbeing Centres (IMWC’s) across Thurrock. It was exciting to step inside the new Corringham IMWC facility and see not only how it will offer a wide range of care and support, but how it boasts a state-of-the-art clinical space for our residents and practitioners to benefit people for generations to come. By continuing to place our residents and those who will use these services at the heart of our decisions, we can ensure the level of support they receive is fit for purpose and helps them to lead a full and healthy lifestyle.”

Cllr Shane Ralph, Councillor for Stanford East and Corringham Town, said

“It was great to see this fantastic new facility in person and explore the many ways it will benefit our residents throughout Corringham, Stanford-Le-Hope and beyond. I very much enjoyed seeing how the new IMWC recognises the power of our communities, and helps to nurture and grow them further by providing an area and resources that can be utilised by those community groups who meet regularly. This is a huge achievement for Thurrock Council, its partners and our residents, and I look forward to seeing it proudly open its doors later this year.”