The last few years have seen the NHS stretched further than ever – and over the past 2-3 years, it has rarely been out of the headlines. One of the less widely publicised challenges facing our health services, however, stems from its actual structures. It all comes down to the historic use of reinforced autoclaved

On the first day of last October’s Healthcare Estates 2023 conference, Natalie Forrest, the Senior Responsible Owner for the Programme, gave an update on progress with the New Hospital Programme. She also discussed the principles behind, and anticipated benefits of, Hospital 2.0 – a national approach to delivering new hospitals more quickly, at a lower

David Williams, Vice President, Transactional Business, UK & Ireland, at Schneider Electric, argues that achieving Net Zero is ‘a whole company initiative’, and that businesses and other organisations – including healthcare providers – serious about their carbon reduction efforts will likely need to invest in a combination of technologies and processes that work together to

Effective ventilation is vital to ensure safe, comfortable, and efficient indoor environments. For hospitals and healthcare facilities in particular, ventilation is a critical component in a building’s life-support system. There are a number of reasons that specifications for hospital ventilation systems are significantly more stringent than for typical commercial buildings. Use of healthcare premises is

In the year IHEEM celebrated its 80th anniversary, the Institute’s Hong Kong Branch marked its own 25th anniversary with a symposium in the city last November. Expert international speakers discussed pressing issues including sustainability and Net Zero, climate change, ‘alternative’ and ‘greener’ energy, the resilience, running costs, and carbon footprint of high-rise hospital buildings, and

In six and a half years as Director and Head of Profession, NHS Estates, at NHS England, Simon Corben has faced some considerable challenges and a pretty full in-tray. To date his agenda has included directing the central NHSE Estates & Facilities team and the national EFM workforce in their rapid response to COVID-19, guiding

Speaking at last October’s Healthcare Estates 2023 conference, Suzanne MacCormick, an experienced healthcare planner at healthcare consultancy, Spencer Harrison, discussed how getting the sensory aspects of healthcare facilities right plays a critical part in providing the optimal care environment and speeding recovery. While the importance of – for example – selecting the right colours, and

The crisis facing water supplies in the UK is acute, with a potential drought on the horizon. All organisations are under pressure to use less water whenever possible, and this includes the NHS, which uses approximately 50 billion cubic metres of water per year,1 making it one of the UK’s largest water consumers. Using less

Scott Tacchi, Head of MMC at Sir Robert McAlpine, argues that for the true benefits of MMC approaches to be fully understood, a comprehensive breakdown of the cost-benefits, to provide the data and information necessary to effectively implement MMC practices from a cost reduction perspective, is required. He says this is a practice that has

Mark Hitchman, managing director of Canon Medical Systems UK, discusses the creation of what is reportedly the UK’s first carbon-neutral built community sports and event arena with an integrated Medical Diagnostic Centre. He explains ‘why this unique fusion of sport and wellbeing will be a catalyst for positive regional health’, and highlights how its creation

With the NHS having celebrated its 75th anniversary earlier this year, Graham Harris, Principal, and Neil Evans, Associate Principal, at Arcadis, look back at some of the major changes in healthcare provision and buildings over the period, and forward to some of the key steps – including increasing digitalisation and ‘embedding healthcare deeper into the

Healthcare estates include key infrastructure to keep our society functioning, but many are ageing, and, in a number of instances, lagging behind those in other sectors when it comes to sustainability. Does support go far enough for these estates to upgrade and adopt low carbon energy solutions considering the UK’s ambitious 2050 carbon targets? Hannah

A gala dinner on the evening of 10 October at Manchester’s Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, attended by some 630 guests, saw the presentation of 12 Healthcare Estates IHEEM Awards celebrating excellence and innovation, and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The latter, presented by the Institute’s CEO, Pete Sellars – who praised the winner’s ‘unwavering commitment to

Global medical practice is constantly changing, partly due to the greater availability of information supplied by new technologies, which in turn improves the precision of medical care, and enables its delivery in a more personalised way Information management technologies supporting health data control are a feature within the surgical set-up at Hospital Alemán in Argentina,

Since the advent of COVID-19, and the established link with respiratory virus airborne transmission, indoor air quality has become especially topical. Earlier this year, the Australian Government held a Clean Air Forum at Parliament House. Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, announced that he would be setting up a committee to improve the nation’s