Thoughts then turned to what alternative uses could be brought to the high street. There was a long discussion on what the health sector could add to the high street.
With the NHS looking to move away from acute care setting and to deliver more services in the community, the high street can offer potential for walk-in centres and community diagnostic centres. People value easy access to health services and it was felt that GPs would be unlikely to return to providing home visits and out-of-hours care regardless of any levels of funding.
Victoria Thourgood, partner at Browne Jacobson, flagged that while there were definitely opportunities and benefit to getting health on the high street, it was not always straightforward with challenges in converting former retail stores for health use, including issues like load-bearing capacities, and the high costs of conversion.