A patient walks through the door, checks in and takes a seat in a beautifully appointed waiting area. After seeing their GP, they return to reception to pay and book a follow-up appointment, then they quickly visit pathology before leaving, pleased that they can tick the blood tests off their to-do list.
When a clinic works well, that sequence feels unremarkable. The patient knows where to go without having to constantly ask the receptionist for directions. Clinicians can move between rooms without crossing a busy waiting area. Different services operate side by side without getting in one another’s way.
None of that happens by accident.
General practices are under pressure to improve access while competing for clinicians. Many also need space to introduce new services. That’s why the clinic layout should be considered part of the business model.
Tim Russell, Co-Founder and Director of Strategic Partnerships at Growth Workplace Design, says owners are now looking beyond the immediate fitout. “Providers now come to us thinking about how the layout supports patient throughput, how the space reads to someone walking in, and whether it can absorb new services as the practice grows,” he says.
Room placement can determine how many sessions a practice can run. Entrances influence how services operate outside normal consulting hours. Staff areas influence recruitment, retention and staff wellbeing.
That thinking shaped Growth Workplace Design’s approach to the recent redevelopment of Rochedale Family Practice. Four separate tenancies covering about 337 square metres were stripped back and rebuilt as one integrated clinic. The finished practice includes:
- GP consulting rooms with natural light
- Two treatment clinics, one dedicated to skin procedures
- Pathology, with a separate after-hours entrance
- Nurses’ stations
- Office space
- A staff area opening onto an external patio.
Rochedale Family Practice has a light, contemporary feel, with pale timber finishes, soft neutral walls and clean architectural lines creating a calm first impression.
That sense of serenity continues through the uncluttered treatment and staff areas, which feature plenty of natural light. Overall, the fitout feels polished, spacious and quietly premium, while supporting its function as a busy general practice.
While beautiful finishes still matter, the more consequential question for any fitout is how the practice will function five or ten years from now.
One practice, not four tenancies
Decisions made before construction can shape the way a practice works every day.
The starting point at Rochedale was consolidating four separate tenancies into one space. That allowed the design team to plan the building as a single operating system, with each area positioned in relation to the next.
“There’s a clear shift toward treating the practice as a business decision,” notes Russell. “Consolidating operations under one roof is a bigger driver than it was.”
Separate tenancies can divide staff and duplicate overheads. They can also make patient movement harder to manage. A unified footprint gives owners greater control over room allocation and the relationship between services.
At Rochedale, pathology was incorporated into the clinic but given its own entrance, enabling it to operate at different hours from the main surgery without any disruption. It is a relatively small design choice with an ongoing operational effect.
The patient experience begins with the floor plan
Many operational problems that appear to be about staffing or scheduling may trace back to the floor plan.
A poorly placed reception desk can mean check-in queues spill across the main walkway, forcing patients leaving consulting rooms to weave through people waiting to be seen. If treatment rooms lack space to store important supplies, nurses may spend part of every appointment walking back and forth for equipment. And when consulting rooms open off the waiting area, private conversations may carry beyond the closed door, making patients and clinicians more conscious of being overheard.
Each issue may seem minor in isolation. Repeated across a busy week, however, these small points of friction can affect patient and staff experience, lengthening turnaround times and making the practice feel crowded and busy.
“Patient flow is largely resolved at the planning stage,” Russell says.
At Rochedale, the open arrival and waiting area leads into a planned arrangement of consulting rooms. Treatment and pathology spaces sit beyond it. The movement of patients and staff was considered before construction began.
The waiting area also reflects changing expectations of primary care, moving away from an overtly institutional feel. At Rochedale, pale timber finishes and soft blue seating create a calmer arrival point without compromising the clinical function of the space.
Staff space has moved up the priority list
The same thinking extends behind the scenes. “Workforce pressure across primary care means the physical environment is now part of how a practice competes for good clinicians,” Russell says.
Australia is projected to face a shortage of 5,560 GPs by 2033, and registered nurses remained in national shortage in 2025. The quality of the working environment now forms part of the employment proposition.
At Rochedale, consulting rooms were arranged around the windows so doctors work in natural light, which is known to support staff’s sleep and wellbeing. The kitchen and rest area opens onto an external patio, giving staff somewhere to step away from the clinical floor.
“Decisions like that are read by staff as a signal of how the practice values them,” says Russell.
Staff amenity is therefore more than a wellbeing feature. It can influence recruitment and retention. It also says something about the culture a practice wants to build.
Flexibility protects the investment
For Russell, the decisions with the greatest long-term value are, “The structural ones made early”.
That thinking shaped Rochedale from the outset. “Getting the room count and adjacencies right [means] the practice can run more sessions within the same space,” he says. “Designing rooms that can flex between uses as services expand. And consolidating operations so overheads and staff aren’t split across separate tenancies…These decisions tend to hold their value over time in a way that finishes alone do not.”
At Rochedale, the treatment clinic sits alongside a dedicated skin treatment room, while pathology operates within the same practice. This gives the clinic a broader service offering without sending patients to separate locations.
Designing for where primary care is heading
Russell expects integrated care to keep gaining ground over the next five to ten years, with more allied health, diagnostics and specialist sessions delivered from the same location.
That shift will change what owners need from their buildings. A well-designed medical practice should give the business room to grow without creating new inefficiencies or weakening the patient and staff experience.
Design will become an ongoing business consideration. Owners will need to revisit whether the building still supports the direction of the practice as technology changes and service models evolve.
Rochedale reflects that longer view. The building was bought and planned around the future of the business, with enough flexibility to support change over time.
That may be the clearest lesson from the project: thoughtful design gives a practice the confidence and capacity to keep evolving with the communities it serves.
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