About the Dedham Vale Community Health Centre

Purpose-built as a doctor’s surgery and related health-care facility, Dedham’s 65 square metre ’Dedham Vale Community Health Centre‘,  a high quality unit, constructed, fitted out and landscaped towards the end of 2007, became available for use in the Autumn of 2008.

The prospect of a final closure in 2004 of the doctor’s surgery  in Dedham, after an unbroken period of some eighty years,  prompted a local opposition movement determined to fight the loss of their GP by securing a new site and raising funds for the building of new premises.  Following successful fund-raising, and with the land generously donated by a local farmer, building work was able to go ahead in 2006. The Colchester-based charity, Colne Housing Society, commissioned the award-winning Essex architects Stanley Bragg and Partners in a unique project to construct a new surgery together with three units of affordable and much needed housing.

Situated less that 500 metres from the centre of one of  the most visited villages in Essex, Dedham Vale Community Health Centre is now a fully-functional Branch Surgery of the nearby Ardleigh Medical Practice and is available for limited use by other NHS users and complementary medicine practitioners.

The premises  comprise two consulting rooms, a large reception room and spacious separate waiting room, a wc with full disabled facilities, and a secure storage room. The premises have prescribed parking for six vehicles with ample space for more.  DVCHC is fully compliant with all current  accessibility and health and safety legislation.

In February 2007 four of the officers of the Dedham Patient’s Steering Group agreed to become Directors of a newly-formed incorporated company  the ‘Dedham Vale Community Health Association’  and after protracted negotiations signed a long lease with Colne Housing Society for the premises.

The Directors and Management Committee’s determination to restore GP services to the newly built premises finally succeeded in July 2009 when the Ardleigh Medical Practice, situated three miles away in the adjacent village of Ardleigh, commenced surgeries on four days a week. During the previous six months the full approval of North Essex NHS, from whom funding for the Branch Surgery was required, was obtained and the fitting out of the premises was completed. The opening was a positive reward for those hundreds of local people who were able to register with the Ardleigh Practice and had earlier experienced a great deal of difficulty getting to and from East Bergholt. It also meant that Dedham patients, who previously travelled to Ardleigh, were now able to see their doctor at a surgery nearer to their homes.

There remains limited availability for other health-related users and those seeking further details or any other enquiries are invited to contact John Osborn or Christopher Garnett for more information.