FEATURE ARTICLES

Aiming to provide a safe, secure, and therapeutic 21st Century care environment that will enable many patients to recover from serious mental illness and eventually return to the community, but in significantly less institutional and cramped surroundings, is the goal of a major £67 million rebuild project currently ongoing at the State Hospital in Lanarkshire.

How healthcare estates and facilities teams can best respond to the challenge of maintaining a safe, clean, and secure patient and staff environment at a time when not only are capital budgets being severely squeezed, but, in one headline speaker’s words, “the NHS is facing some of the most farreaching changes in its history”, was the major focus of both the presidential address, and the two keynote speeches – one of which also considered the case for “evidence-based” design – at this year’s Healthcare Estates conference and exhibition in Manchester. HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports.

As the UK’s largest organisation, with an annual purchasing budget of around £17 billion, the NHS has an enormous part to play in reducing the country’s energy consumption and emissions.

Steve Ruddell, division manager, Discrete Automation and Motion, at ABB, outlines the advantages of fitting variable speed drives and high efficiency motors into HVAC systems at a time when, faced with the need to cut costs, estates and facilities teams are having to look more closely than ever at reducing their buildings’ energy consumption.

Ronan Quinn, managing director of interior construction specialist Ardmac, describes the challenges of building and fitting out a new cleanroom laboratory for blood and bone marrow therapeutic treatment at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin in Dublin.

Adrian Popplewell, an associate at a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Ramboll Acoustics, discusses the importance of good acoustics in the design of truly fit-for-purpose 21st Century healthcare buildings, agreeing that, as Florence Nightingale wrote in 1859: “Unnecessary noise is the most cruel absence of care which can be inflicted on the sick or well”.

With September having seen the end of the registration period for the introductory phase of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme, healthcare sector participants should already be monitoring their energy usage, and preparing their carbon reduction strategies.

A new Children’s Unit at Doncaster Royal Infirmary that combines single and multi-bedded children’s ward accommodation, observation and assessment facilities, and high dependency beds, all located on an extensively refurbished existing floor of the Infirmary’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital, has been given a bright, uplifting feel thanks to the extensive use of a special solid acrylic material from LG Hausys.

According to Elliott Off-Site Building Solutions, as the range of services offered by hospitals expands, an increasing number of specifiers are looking for more effective ways of delivering their estate requirements.

Martin West, head of the Healthcare Property consulting business at property consultancy, advice, and transaction services specialist Drivers Jonas Deloitte, argues that, with signs of improvement in the property market, now is a good time for estates managers to consider how efficiently their buildings are being utilised, and how sale, or different use of, under-used structures might help enhance their Trust’s operations and release much-needed capital.

According to Alan Hambidge, director of Empathy Environmental Consultants, having in place effective, documented risk management systems and policies should be “a given” for any large healthcare organisation today.

Paul Brockway, senior sustainability consultant at Arup, reports on a carbon footprint study undertaken at the Barts and the London NHS Trust which set out to “understand carbon hotspots and identify actions that can save both money and carbon”.

Building maintenance and the construction of new healthcare facilities are central to maintaining the NHS’s infrastructure, but such work is costly, and subject to intense financial scrutiny.

A recently published National Audit Office (NAO) report says that, although most of the 70-plus English PFI hospital contracts now operational are “achieving the value for money expected when the contracts were signed”, there “continue to be risks” to the long-term value of others.

The 2010 Architects for Health (AfH) Student Health Design Awards, presented recently at the RIBA’s London headquarters, saw the highest number of entries – at nearly 100 – in the event’s four-year history, with architecture and interior design students from all over the world demonstrating their talent, imagination, and creative skills, in the quest for the top prize.

Peter Barker, senior consultant at fire testing, consultancy, and certification specialist Chiltern International Fire, discusses the importance for healthcare estates personnel of training and competence in all aspects of passive fire prevention/protection, with a special focus on ensuring that fire doors are properly specified for purpose and regularly maintained.

With courtyards’ therapeutic effects and potential positive impact on patient recovery well-documented in a number of studies, Mark Barker of Archial Architects details some successful examples of their use in healthcare and other buildings, and presents a personal view on how users can optimise their design.

While a familiar issue for seasoned estates and facilities managers, the problem of dirt and dust in ducting, and the potential consequences of insufficient cleaning of hospital ductwork, are in danger of being ignored due to a lack of available funds for proper maintenance within ever diminishing healthcare estate budgets.

An impressive new health and social care centre designed to act as a focal point for the local community in Dudley in the West Midlands, which brings together a wide range of medical and social care services, has won the architects string of awards, including, most recently, the award for Best Design in the LIFT Awards 2010.

A large NHS acute hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire expects to achieve a 51% reduction in its annual carbon emissions, and annual financial savings of at least £210,000 on an ongoing basis, with the potential to save considerably more in the future via a continuous improvement programme, following a complete overhaul of an ageing boiler house to form a new, “state-of-the-art” energy centre.