A two-day workshop being hosted by Greenwich University’s Built Environment Department in London from 1-2 November this year will aim to equip clinical staff who are, or who are about to be, involved in NHS capital projects, more fully, so that they can engage more authoritatively with project teams during the planning and construction/ refurbishment of healthcare buildings.
This idea for the event came about as a result of the perceived need for training in health estate planning now that London South Bank University has discontinued its MSc Planning Buildings for Health course, explained one of the organisers, senior lecturer at Greenwich University’s Faculty of Architecture, Computing & Humanities, Liz Whelan, a Fellow of IHEEM. She said: “This idea was further developed following research for an MSc dissertation by Dr Emma Stockton of Greta Ormond Street Hospital, which found that some medical staff feel prevented from making a positive contribution to healthcare facility planning for a number of reasons.”
Jennifer Whinnett from the Medical Architecture Research Unit (MARU) at London South Bank University, Dr Emma Stockton, and Liz Whelan, are working together with Perkins+Will Architects to stage the workshop. The first day will give participants a chance to meet key people in project teams – including architects, a health planner, and a project manager, and to understand their role in the project lifecycle, with the second day including a visit to a hospital site to see how a project has been run, plus a visit to an architectural office.
This event is being supported by IHEEM’s ADBE Technical Platform (of which Liz Whelan is a member) and the Built Environment Department at Greenwich University, which is keen to work with MARU and practitioners to keep developing this important area of work.
Greenwich University is located in the historic Old Royal Naval College, originally designed by Sir Christopher Wren as the Royal Hospital for Seamen, and part of a World Heritage site. It is easily accessible using public transport. For more details on attending, email Jennifer Whinnett (whinnej2@lsbu.ac.uk) or Liz Whelan (e.whelan@gre.ac.uk).
