Smarter refurbishment is a must for the NHS

I had my suspicions confirmed at SHINE’s recent event on sustainable refurbishment in healthcare – new build capital investment is set to get about as rare as the Giant Panda.Whilst not a surprise, it will have been a stark message to some NHS Trusts. It’s a challenge to deliver today’s service models in current estate, but this is nothing compared to delivering the services required in the face of a changing climate and shifting demographics. We need flexible, resource-efficient space that supports wellbeing and effective services now and in the future. But we clearly need to deliver this with less money. The QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Prevention and Productivity) agenda is pushing Trusts to strive for these outcomes. So if there is only going to be a limited new build programme, refurbishment is the name of the game.The Department of Health estimates that 3% of the total space owned by the NHS isn’t being used. So there are significant savings to be made in rationalising the estate.But there is a health warning on this (excuse the pun) as simply passing on inefficient buildings to another organisation will not help meet national emissions targets or support local efforts on regeneration for instance.At the SHINE (Sustainable Healthcare Network)event, Adrian Eggleton, Chair Elect of HefmA and Head of Estates at NHS Foundation Trust for Gloucestershire, spoke about how his Mental Health Trust reduced accommodation by 23% and the average length of stay from 75 to 40 days for older age mental health patients through their refurbishment strategy. Reducing stay length in this way is important to the QIPP agenda as the longer a patient is in institutionalised care, the less likely they are to return to full independence. By co-locating referral staff they also decreased the number of inaccurate referrals, reducing the number of wasted appointments, increasing the likelihood of effectively treated, satisfied patients and building a sense of teamwork among staff.Over the last year, SHINE has developed a series of case studies on the refurbishment of healthcare estate. We looked at six Trusts, ranging across mental health, acute and primary care, and across different eras of construction. The primary focus was energy and carbon, but we also looked at water and staff and patient wellbeing. With little useful data available up till now on sustainable refurbishment of healthcare buildings it has been difficult to make the business case for change. So nothing changes making it harder still to make the business case the next time around.The SHINE MESH project aims to break this cycle. The case studies have been submitted to the Department of Health for review, but we are hoping to make them available to all very soon. If you would like further information on the case studies please contact: info@shine-network.org. Our next event – to be held in July – will look at low carbon healthcare estate and the challenge of knowing where to start – where to invest to get the biggest bang for your buck so to speak. We aim to equip healthcare professionals with a systematic process that will support the smart investment of what little capital budget there is left.www.shine-network.org