As someone who has spent years working at the intersection of healthcare and technology, I’ve witnessed firsthand the extraordinary challenges facing the sector. There are three megatrends that I would like to highlight as they are reshaping healthcare delivery: Sustainability, digitised operations, and staff productivity. Among these, sustainability stands as one of the most pressing

The neighbourhood health service, designed around you — that’s the vision outlined in Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England. As you might expect, there are some big promises in there, and making good on those pledges is going to hinge on having the infrastructure to support the exceptional service provided by

How can health estate managers deliver critical services while lowering operational emissions and costs? NHS England spends approximately £1.4 bn on energy, a figure which has doubled since 20191 — demonstrating the urgency of the challenge estate managers face. There are rays of light, however. The introduction of new and refreshed sustainability-minded energy procurement strategies,

With an ageing estate, and the NHS driving toward Net Zero, hospital electrical systems face mounting stress and increasing rates of failure. Drawing on his over 25 years of hands-on experience, Authorising Engineer Eugene Conroy C. Eng, FIHEEM, MIET, MSc, highlights common power-related issues across NHS estates – from design flaws to operational shortfalls. As

Harijeet Singh BSc, Business Development manager and Vikram Bamra Beng, Technical Services manager at Goodwater, present results from a three-month evaluation of monochloramine disinfection across two oncology hospitals within the same NHS Trust, both of which had experienced persistent Legionella pneumophila contamination despite conventional control measures. The study explores the operational and microbiological impact of

Connected laundry systems have the potential to become a cornerstone of both new-build and retrofit healthcare estates. Offering smarter, more resilient operations, these systems reduce downtime, ensure compliance with stringent hygiene standards and facilitate a much-needed shift towards predictive maintenance. Mick Christian, Training and Development manager at Electrolux Professional, explores why, as healthcare estates evolve,

The Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 was a pivotal moment that reshaped how the UK construction sector approaches building safety, says Mandeep Bansal, Technical Advocacy director at Knauf. He says that for healthcare estate professionals, hospital managers, engineers, architects, surveyors, and contractors, the lessons are clear: safety and performance cannot be compromised. Delivering resilient, safe

A fully digital approach to verification is reshaping how critical ventilation systems are managed, helping estates teams move from reactive maintenance to improved system availability and lifecycle performance. Stephen Bartlett, director at Invigilatis, is the product architect of Seeker Ventilation – the first fully digital verification solution for critical ventilation system. He argues that digitised

Opening the show The event opened with a lively keynote from IHEEM’s CEO Pete Sellars, setting the tone for a conference dedicated to learning, collaboration, and forward-thinking solutions for estates management. Speaking to a packed audience, Sellars reflected on the show’s theme, ‘Prevention is Better Than Cure,’ highlighting the value of collective learning. “This year’s

Whilst temperature is the primary method of microbial control in healthcare building water systems, poor design, inappropriate materials and a lack of effective maintenance results in proliferation of waterborne pathogens and formation of biofilms within the water network. As a result, water sources can present a risk to patients and vulnerable users. Biocides are often

The NHS has made bold commitments: to achieve Net Zero for directly controlled emissions by 2032 and system-wide by 2040. These targets are rightly ambitious; the scale of the health estate makes the NHS one of the UK’s largest single contributors to public-sector carbon emissions. Since 2020, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) has provided

The Prime Minister has promised to ‘harness game-changing tech’ as part of the 10 Year Health Plan, but what role will EBME departments have in integrating and managing these technologies? As these technologies become increasingly connected, do EBME departments have the skills and knowledge they need to support the government’s ambitions? What will be the

Central to this transformation is the integration of biophilic design (design that connects people with nature) principles that prioritise mental health and psychological wellness alongside clinical excellence. Stress in healthcare settings stems not only from experiences of suffering, illness or pain, but also from lack of privacy, exposure to unfamiliar or anxiety-inducing sounds, inadequate lighting

Beginning in 2022, the £34 m upgrade at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, significantly expanded and improved the emergency care facilities at the hospital. Completed in six stages, the project involved extending the old emergency department with a new three-storey steel-framed building over the existing ambulance drop-off area, plus a new two-storey wing

Back in 2000, I asked a simple but uncomfortable question: Do we lead, or do we lag? At that time, it was becoming clear that clinical ventilation systems across the NHS were not always performing as expected. Rooms that should have been safe were not consistently so. Systems that were assumed to be protective were,