The NHS turned 70 this year. In that there’s lots to celebrate, but equally lots to be mindful of. As an award-winning team of specialist healthcare architects, we have a unique view of what has been, what may come and what is needed now for healthcare estates.
Now, more than ever, we’re focused on how smart design can resist the influence of time and uncertainty on asset value.
Over the years, medical science, technology, and care models have advanced rapidly. The population has grown, people are living longer, and today less investment needs to do more. Buildings from the heroic early days of the NHS are crumbling, while others are facing early obsolescence.
In this picture, clients require a more sustainable vision, delivered now.
How is this possible? The answer is in creative options analysis that accounts for past experience and future trends. We couple this with user-focused insights, garnered from our multi-sector knowledge and, importantly, by listening to our clients. What follows is an intelligent reconfiguration, repurposing or disposal of assets that’s right for immediate and future needs.
With many decades of involvement in the public and private healthcare estate at all scales, Stride Treglown has an unparalleled breadth of experience.
Before any masterplan, we work closely with clients – with Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, for example – to understand their existing estates. Only then can we match objectives to opportunity and make the assets sweat harder.
As we did at the Hampshire Critical Treatment Hospital, we interpret demographic, technological and policy trends to see more confidently into the future, laying down a strategic path for long-term success.
Not all accommodation is equally subject to change. We design-in flexibility to meet future uncertainty only where it is merited and cost-effective.
We use learning from our blended masterplanning and multi-sectoral design teams to improve the quality of outcomes. This integrated approach can also maximize the value potential in repurposing or disposing of assets.
With a clear strategic framework of the kind we’ve developed at Morriston Hospital, we can upgrade and rationalize our healthcare estate in lockstep with time and uncertainty. Let’s give our NHS another 70 years.
Simon Boundy is speaking at the 2018 Healthcare Estates Conference on Tuesday 9th October. His talk, ‘Planning for the Long Term, Delivering Now’ is taking place in the Strategy Theatre at 12:20.