Former Indian restaurant in Fareham is being stripped as work begins to repurpose it for the NHS

Former Indian restaurant, Tiffins and Thalis, based in Fareham, is currently being completely stripped out before it undergoes a huge amount of work to transform the property into a modern child development centre.

The new centre will provide a centralised community hub for families as well as future proofing children’s community health services across Fareham and Gosport.

Solent NHS Estates and Facilities are working with developers to construct the development, which will serve Fareham and Gosport residents a place where they can access community medical, therapies and nursing services.

The centre, which will be located in West Street, is set to be the second high street health hub that the Solent NHS Trust has established, the first one being a sexual health clinic and a children’s therapies centre under the Vue cinema at Eastleigh’s Swan Centre.

Work on the Fareham hub has officially started after planning permission was granted in February 2022.

It is set to include 12 clinical rooms and therapy space as well as first floor offices and second floor storage, and it is expected to open in the spring of 2024.

The new centre will be replacing various children’s services across Fareham and Gospot including Fareham Health Centre, Lee-on-the-Solent Health Centre, Rowner Health Centre and Fareham Community Hospital.

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Mark Young, associate director of estates transformation, said: ‘Transforming a three-storey period building into a modern child development centre is a challenge, but will provide high quality space in an ideal location in the heart of Fareham.

‘We are looking forward to providing larger, more flexible clinical space for our children’s services colleagues, enabling them to give the best possible treatment and care to their young patients in a building that also furthers our carbon reduction aspirations.’

The developers involved in the site are trying to make it a zero carbon project, meaning the hub will utilise renewable energy sources.

Solent NHS Estates and Facilities have partnered with healthcare developers the Assura Group to deliver the community hub, which will offer a range of services including community paediatrics, speech therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

The former Indian restuarant, Tiffins and Thalis, was also operated as a 176-seat Indian restaurant called Café Tusk, but it will now be completely tranformed for families in the area and it has nearby car parks for anyone accessing the centre.

Richard Brown, operations director for physical and mental health child and family services, said: ‘This is a really exciting opportunity which will enable us to expand our community healthcare provision in the Fareham area.

‘Many of our patients need to access more than one of our services, so having our teams at a single larger central base is going to be a very positive step forward for everyone.

‘We want our new centre to feel safe, welcoming and family-friendly and, where possible, will be working with staff, patients and their families to ensure the centre has the right look and feel.’