Our managing director, Simon Brewer, led a team from the South West London to Bordeaux, France to visit one of Europe’s most advanced diagnostic laboratories, a trip that is now directly shaping plans for SWLP’s own GP hub.
Why Bordeaux?
The purpose of the visit was to see, first-hand, the end-to-end pathway from GP clinic to laboratory report. The team met with the site’s medical director, Jean-Philippe, along with its operational lead and lab lead, who walked them through the facility’s workflow and the thinking behind its design.
The Bordeaux lab, which uses equipment from multiple manufacturers including, Beckman Siemens, Sysmex and Abbott, has become a model for efficiency and low-cost operation since it opened in 2018. As Simon put it: “there’s nothing the site does that SWLP doesn’t already have the capability to do, the difference lies in how the workflow has been designed around efficiency from the ground up.”
Inside the Bordeaux workflow
The process begins when a patient is given a ‘prescription’ undertaken for a test by their GP and reports to phlebotomy at one of 44 clinic sites or one of the 10 larger locality Phlebotomy hub sites, more comparable to the UK’s local neighbourhood heath centres. In effect this acts as a ‘reception in the community’ for all pathology samples for the 5 hospital laboratories, Microbiology and Blood Sciences Hub.
From there:
- Bloods are taken and the sample is centrifuged and booked in at the phlebotomy local hub.
- Any issues are resolved at this stage, so no errors pass through to the hub lab which is referred to as the ‘production’ lab.
- From that point on, the entire process is digital, every sample is tracked, temperatures are monitored, and workflow completion times are predicted automatically.
- Samples arrive at the lab already in racks ready for the automated analysers, removing the need for manual reception, data entry, or relabelling of paperwork altogether.
It’s a level of automation built on seven years of refinement, starting from a purpose-built facility designed around a unified test catalogue and workflow from day one, even though SWLP’s own facilities are decades older and starting from a very different point, it is a useful benchmark,
What this means for SWLP’s GP hub
The Bordeaux visit has directly informed the design of SWLP’s own GP hub project. Much of the groundwork mirrors what was seen in France: agreeing the test repertoire and catalogue, designing the lab around the workflow, and building in meaningful GP and primary care engagement from the outset. Rather than a formal consultation process, this will take the form of ongoing stakeholder input, with GP and primary care representation built into the programme boards to ensure the workflow works for the people using it.
For SWLP, this means redesigning courier runs, introducing new middleware IT systems, and implementing auto-registration and auto-validation, all changes aimed at replicating the efficiencies seen in Bordeaux. We are also taking the opportunity to introduce sustainability into the designs and workflows to align to our NHS Net Zero targets
The four phases
The GP hub project is structured around four key phases:
- Design and approval: Q3 2026 – completing the building design, securing capital approval, and finalising facilities management, mechanical and electrical (M&E) design, and load planning.
- Contract and build: Q1 2027 – developing the physical facility, including a first-floor extension, a new drainage matrix, and an air handling unit to manage ventilation and air exchange across the site.
- Installation & Deployment: Q1/2 2027 fitting the agreed equipment, in partnership with Beckman.
- Validation and verification: Q2 2027 a comparatively quick final stage to confirm the new systems and processes are working as intended.
Physically, the site will see two units knocked through and reconfigured, with a ground floor housing sample reception and a suite of diagnostic labs, and a first floor dedicated to an innovation and training centre, alongside a corporate office and a base for Point of Care Testing (POCT) in the community training.
Timelines
Our aim is to have the GP Hub operational in July 2027, so there is much to be done if we are to meet this ambitious timeline.
Beckman and SWLP are appointed dedicated PMO’s to ensure momentum is built and maintained and architects have been engaged and design briefs developed. Fire, Structural and Engineering expert firms are being identified to help develop the estate along with legal representation for the landlord and appropriate council permissions etc
In the interim, current working arrangements will continue to be managed, so we have to try and mitigate the operational pressures at each site for another year before we can separate acute and primary care workflows to improve turnaround times for both.
An open day is also being planned for September, before it becomes a building site giving staff the chance to see the site and the vision for it. We also plan to relocate some members of the corporate team to be based there in the autumn to release space at SGH site.
The bigger picture
Beyond the operational improvements, the GP hub project sits within a wider ambition to secure SWLP’s future. The goals are clear: improve quality, improve performance, increase productivity, and optimise costs. With SWLP achieving NHSE’s “thriving” maturity network status, there is also an ambition to grow the business further, including seeking outsourced contract work from GPs in other Integrated Care Systems.
The Bordeaux trip offered a glimpse of what’s possible when workflow, IT and facility design are built around efficiency from the start. Now, that thinking is being adapted and applied to shape the next chapter for SWLP.