Refurbishments are becoming increasingly common across the NHS, but planning and delivering construction projects in live medical environments with the minimum of disruption to patients, staff, and visitors, is no mean feat, as Richard Hall, a director at integrated property services and project delivery specialist, Styles&Wood, explains.
With a property estate worth approximately £40 billion, the NHS is one of the construction industry’s biggest customers. However, the nature of the projects happening in the healthcare sector is changing. What was once a thriving new-build industry based substantially around PFI funding has fallen off drastically since the onset of the financial crisis, both as a result of cuts in capital expenditure, and due to the Government’s overarching strategy of shifting the emphasis of care away from large hospital facilities towards a community-based model. However, at the same time, an ageing population means patient volumes continue to increase year-on-year. One of the effects of this combination of difficult factors is significant growth in the need for projects to refurbish, upgrade, and increase the capacity of, older facilities, so that they meet patient demands in terms of both quantity, and quality, of care. For those tasked with delivering these projects, there is a broad set of additional challenges that are not present either in new-build projects, or refurbishment of vacated premises. This is true of any project, but especially so in a live healthcare environment. Arguably foremost among these concerns is ensuring the health and safety of patients and staff, and there are a number of potential risks that need to be carefully considered by the project manager. Perhaps the most obvious among these is that vulnerable patients could suffer dangerous adverse effects as a result of disruptions to their care regime, and the likelihood of this increases in accordance with the level of disruption.
Varying disruption levels
Of course, the kind of disruption caused by construction works varies widely, from minor disturbances to patients’ rest as a result of factors such as low-level noise or the presence of non-healthcare staff, to more significant interruptions involving requiring patients to move rooms, or staff to adjust the timings or location of regular treatment. Tackling these issues is a question of planning, but while it may be difficult to anticipate and plan for every issue that might be encountered during the project, having a well-defined strategy in place at the outset will significantly reduce the number of unforeseen obstacles encountered.
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