From outdated to future-proof and sustainable care and treatment center center. Part 1: the sale

In October 2021, the Apollo Healthcare Property Fund invested in the Care and Treatment Centre “Noord” in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

The center is currently in an outdated state and in urgent need of redevelopment, renovation and sustainability. In the coming year, the contractor will start working on the renovation plan and the center will be completely modernized according to current sustainability standards. The renovation plan was drawn up in consultation with the care providers, the Apollo Healthcare Property Fund and the contractor. During the renovation process we will speak with different parties and ask about their experiences. In this first article, we spoke with Peter Oostveen, a general practitioner at the Care and Treatment Centre “Noord”, and asked him why the general practitioners made the choice to sell the current building and to rent it back after renovation and making it more sustainable.

Initially, this health center was a merger of a number of general practitioners, but it soon became apparent that broadening and deepening the range of care and welfare services was desirable. “We saw the pressure on the demand for healthcare increasing due to the changes in the healthcare system. By bundling the care offer as much as possible, we try to distribute that pressure somewhat. Healthcare providers also want a better work-life balance and less work pressure. The interdisciplinary and easily accessible mutual contacts allow you to offer the right care to patients as accurately as possible. We believe this is a win-win situation for both healthcare providers and patients. A multidisciplinary center like ours offers an excellent solution for this,” says Peter Oostveen.

The sale of the property can make a significant contribution to this. We wondered whether keeping the real estate in-house was really such a good idea and whether it could be seen as added value. It does not fit into the primary processes of a health center and takes a lot of time. Time that we can also spend on providing quality care to our patients. We therefore believe that the latter should remain paramount. That is why we looked for a party whose primary focus is managing real estate and who also understands how to make the property future-proof and sustainable, so that we are relieved of that care and can focus fully on the patient. The Apollo Healthcare Property Fund came out as the best party for us, because they specialize in healthcare real estate and because they are a very solid party with a long-term vision.

It will not only be an improvement for the patients, it will also be attractive for our future colleagues to come and work here. The building is currently very dated, which means that we cannot offer the care and working environment that we want. As a young general practitioner you prefer to work in a building with all the modern technical facilities that are used today. With renovation and making the building sustainable, we will become future-proof again, which will certainly affect our job satisfaction and the quality of care. As the youngest of the partnership and the only non-owner of the property, I therefore have every interest in ensuring that the property is further developed in a sustainable manner and that it is made future-proof.

The appearance of the building will certainly contribute to the experience of the patients. I’ve seen the architect’s drawings. In consultation with the other tenants, we were able to express our wishes to the architect and indicate which rooms with which functions were desirable. The architect has presented his creative ideas and turned it into something really beautiful. The building will be much lighter on the inside with more open spaces. The functionalities are becoming more practical and the team space is becoming multidisciplinary.

“The main objective is to offer good care to our patients. That’s what we do it for in the end.” Peter Oostveen, Care and Treatment Centre “Noord”.

We are already looking at the current range of care in the complex, and what expansion we can add to it. We foresee that the new building will also bring more patients and that the current package of healthcare providers can be expanded, but we want to wait for the renovation first and then see which rooms can be used for this expansion. In any case, there will also be a pharmacy in the health center.

We hope that with these developments we can expand our range of care both qualitatively and quantitatively and that we can establish a health center in the area where people find it pleasant to come. That remains our main goal.