University Hospital Southampton Car Parking and Access

A strategic solution to hospital access to improve wellbeing

Difficulty parking and accessing a busy hospital site adds unnecessary stress, anxiety and time-wastage to staff, patients, students and visitors, negatively impacting their wellbeing before they even pass through the hospital doors.

With 10,000 people accessing the hospital on an average weekday, University Hospital Southampton (UHS) needed to take action. Utilising Prime’s experience of unlocking challenges, they’ve freed up land for future clinical developments and realised unexpected benefits in the process.

Prime’s joint venture with UHS, working in a Strategic Estates Partnership, has been pivotal in improving the patient journey at the site. The £17.5m accessibility and parking scheme has not only solved an immediate challenge for the estate, but with Prime’s involvement, has helped future-proof the site for further demand and development.

In addition to creating a more user-friendly experience for patients, staff and visitors, the project team considered the future needs of the estate to find solutions to support rising patient numbers and the development of additional clinical facilities. UHS had established accessible parking was a critical consideration for many NHS employees when choosing where to work. With competition from several local hospitals and aspirations to become world-leading, resolving this site challenge would also support the recruitment and retention of first-rate employees.

Before its redevelopment, the site faced several challenges regarding parking that led to tensions between visitors and local residents. Being situated in a dense residential area, there was little opportunity for hospital traffic to park legally.

Prime worked with the Trust to unlock their estate challenges, leading to the development of a seven-storey car park on a former surface level car park site. The new car park provides 778 spaces to meet current and forecasted demand for onsite parking at the hospital. To minimise the impact of the build on the surrounding residential area, the new multi-storey car park has a tiered design to set it back from neighbouring properties, while the configuration of the car park ensures that traffic flow in and out is split between the North and South site entrances to relieve congestion at peak times.

Improved accessibility has also delivered huge operational rewards inside the hospital _ reducing the number of missed or late appointments, helping departments to improve their efficiency.

To enable the Trust to retain operational control and income from parking, Prime negotiated an innovative contract with private investors, ensuring the income generated can be reinvested back into vital frontline patient services.

When clinical needs and estate maintenance take priority, it can be hard to justify the costs of a new multi-storey car park or find a way to make change a reality. However, with Prime’s experience with commercial modelling and strategic estate planning, we’ve been able to help UHS to transform its site and unlock greater possibilities for the hospital’s future.

Developing space for change in health and care