In a ground-breaking move, the Northumbria Health and Care Academy, alongside P+HS Architects, has set a new standard for healthcare facility design, prioritising staff wellbeing. Situated in the grounds of the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSECH) in Cramlington, Northumberland, and built by Meldrum Group (with Hilson Moran as WELL-Accredited Professionals on the scheme), the

The NHS is one of the UK’s largest property owners, managing over 29 million square metres of estate at a cost exceeding £10 bn per year. These buildings are more than just infrastructure — they are the backbone of patient care, enabling safe, high-quality services and driving healthcare transformation. A well-designed, fit-for-purpose estate supports digitally

The Building Safety Act 2022 marks a seismic shift in accountability, born from Grenfell’s tragedy, demanding full lifecycle transparency for Higher-Risk Buildings — including hospitals. For the NHS, this isn’t just an estates issue — it’s a legal, moral, and patient safety imperative. The ‘golden thread’ of accurate, accessible building data must be maintained from

The NHS currently faces a number of well-known and difficult pressures — including increasing patient demand, ageing infrastructure, budget constraints, maintenance backlogs, and staffing shortages, in addition to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to find innovative and flexible solutions to help the NHS navigate these challenges, while adding high-quality clinical estate

Drive down any UK high street, and you wouldn’t be surprised to see a crumbling building nestled between a charity shop and a store selling vapes. It’s been half a decade or more since the NHS began looking at plans for reimagining vacant high street buildings into primary and community care spaces, but as the

The estate has been identified as a major limiting factor on the ability of the NHS to reduce the current waiting list size of 6.5 million people in England alone. What can we do to provide the right space with so many financial pressures on the public finances as a whole? There are lots of

Speaking immediately following the morning’ first keynote, given remotely by Judith Paget, Director General for Health and Social Services and NHS Wales CEO, on 7 May, Stuart Douglas told the conference the key areas he would be like to explore would be tools for management — with ‘the estate-sensitive subject of surveys and risk management’,

The IHEEM Wales Gala Dinner 2025 took place after the opening day of the IHEEM Wales Regional Conference and Exhibition, which was held again this year — following last year’s success — at the ICC Wales, just a stone’s throw away. Themed ‘Pioneering Estates for Tomorrow’, the two-day conference covered high-profile issues including the challenges

Good interior design, and clear, effective signage, are not just ‘nice to have’, they are essential for healthcare environments, and can have a significant impact on patient experience, recovery, and staff productivity. They help give a space character, and encourage staff to take ownership of, and have pride in, their facility — often leading to

We hear a lot about air quality and its undoubted impact on our wellbeing and health. But when we dig a little bit more on the subject, people are referring mostly to outdoor air quality. The general perception seems to be that we are exposed to outdoor pollution, but that once we are inside in

Located in Tooting, St George’s Hospital dates back over 200 years. It opened its doors as a 60-bed hospital at Hyde Park Corner in 1733, and was rebuilt in 1820, offering over 300 beds. To help meet a growing demand, a new convalescent hospital was eventually built in Wimbledon, and a new medical school, now

As the UK separated from the EU, it was no longer subject to the obligations of the EU Public Contract Regulations 2015. A new piece of legislation, the Procurement Act 2023, was therefore drafted, with the hope of overhauling previous policies. The Procurement Act 2023 was made law on 27 October 2023, but pending a change

Within our healthcare buildings, you will find a variety of spaces — from waiting rooms and patient recovery areas to operating theatres and MRI rooms. With each serving a specific function, you can expect to see a range of differing requirements and expectations for the building materials and finishes installed in these settings. As well

For those that may not be familiar with SFG20, it is the industry standard for building maintenance specification, with an extensive library of schedules covering more than 70 different asset types, plus the fabric of the building itself. It was created in 1990 in response to the need for a standard that would drive legal

Traditionally, the luxury of using a blank canvas is not linked to the usual, actual available site, especially when considering retrofit solutions. Many innovative design nominations, since at least the 1990s, tend to assume a new open floor area, free of the physical constraints that hinder implementation of blue-sky ideas, often also within existing departmental