As Trusts accelerate electrification of heat and wider decarbonisation, electricity demand across hospital sites is beginning to outpace available grid capacity. What was once seen as a technical issue is now acting as a real blocker to retrofit programmes, new clinical facilities, and EV rollout. Trusts cannot simply wait for grid reinforcement; instead, as Craig

A masterclass in fast-tracked healthcare engineering, the £15m Ward 6 Ventilation Inpatient Centre (VIC) project at Aintree University Hospital Liverpool has transformed a high-risk structural challenge into a high-quality clinical facility, eradicating RAAC and completely reimagining the estate. As a result, the Major Capital Projects Team has created a facility that is now one of

After 20 years, HTM 02-01 has changed. The 2026 revision is much more than an update of technical references or a replacement for an ageing document. Parts A and B together establish a stronger lifecycle approach to Medical Gas Pipeline Systems (MGPS), linking the way systems are conceived and designed with the way they are

The NHS Estates Technical Bulletin (NETB) No. 2024/3 provides supplementary guidance to HTM 04-01: Safe Water in Healthcare Premises. The purpose of this bulletin is to highlight the importance of ensuring that healthcare environments are designed and managed to protect patients who are at high risk of infection from non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and other waterborne

Richard Burgin, assistant director of securing the future at AGH Solutions – a wholly owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust – discusses the work being undertaken for its RAAC management programme at Airedale General Hospital and the challenge of carrying out extensive inspection, monitoring, maintenance, and strengthening works while maintaining a fully operational healthcare

On a very hot, sunny day in early July, Health Estate Journal drove to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to visit the site’s new six-storey Surgical Elective Centre (SEC), which has been designed and constructed by Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) specialist MTX for Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust. Occupying a former car

Dr Colette Jeffrey has been identifying and solving wayfinding problems in NHS hospitals for many years. Having written the official NHS Wayfinding guidance and worked with more than 25 NHS hospitals, she recently completed a PhD study that investigated why people get lost in buildings. This article explains why hospital wayfinding is so difficult, the

Through its industrialisation strategy and Hospital 2.0 approach, the New Hospital Programme is demonstrating how decisions shaping hospital delivery can also shape how hospitals are maintained, adapted and operated for decades to come. Here, Dr Abbie Romano, head of industrialisation for the NHP at NHS England, explains how, by reducing unwanted variability and strengthening the

The Healthcare Estates Awards celebrate 
excellence and innovation in the fields of healthcare engineering and estates & facilities management, recognising outstanding individuals, teams, projects, products, and initiatives in these critical sectors. 
The winners of this year’s awards will be unveiled 
at IHEEM’s Awards Dinner on Tuesday 13 October 2026. Apprentice of the Year This award

The SECURITHERM EP mixer has been designed with hygiene in mind. The body and spout have smooth interiors, reducing the niches where bacteria can adhere and proliferate. The tubes and mechanism are designed to hold very low water volumes and reduce the number of components in contact with water. When the mixer is shut off,

The difficulty is rarely one of intent. More often, it is the gap between what estates teams want to provide and what has historically been practical to deliver across complex clinical estates. A healthcare estate may include acute wards, outpatient areas, staff spaces, visitor environments, administrative buildings, and lower-use areas, each with different patterns of

The government’s 10 Year Capital Plan marks a significant milestone for the NHS estate; the plan creates a major opportunity to modernise healthcare infrastructure and strengthen the environments in which care is delivered. Healthcare Estates will bring the sector together to turn that ambition into safer, smarter, more sustainable and resilient facilities — across both

As energy costs rise, government Net Zero deadlines approach, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) expectations tighten, the gap between what healthcare buildings can achieve and how they currently perform is becoming more apparent. Addressing this gap is increasingly shaping both operational priorities and longer-term strategic decision making. Darryl Gregory, VP of Sales for EMEA at

Despite significant investment in AI across the healthcare sector, a substantial proportion of AI initiatives remain confined to pilot programs, failing to deliver measurable return on investment at scale. Sathiyan Kutty, chief AI officer at Emids, examines the structural and operational factors that have widened this ‘ROI gap’, explores where genuine value creation is beginning

When it comes to decarbonisation, the NHS does not have a technology problem – it has a funding problem. At a time of geopolitical instability, pressure on public finances, and persistent energy price volatility, NHS organisations need a credible, fundable route to deploy proven technologies such as LED lighting, solar PV, battery storage, and EV