What needs to be delivered to fix the NHS?

Conor Ellis, head of Healthcare at Rider Levett Bucknall, an independent construction, property, and management consultant, argues, in a personal viewpoint, that estates and facilities management teams must adopt ever more innovative approaches to optimising the use of their estate given the tight financial structures the NHS currently faces. He sets out for a four-pronged approach which he believes will prove effective, a key element being the need for greater collaboration with partners such as other NHS bodies and commercial developers to get the best out of existing and new buildings. He also exhorts those looking at new-build schemes ‘not to focus slavishly on capital costs alone’.

In the bid for Number 10 earlier this year, there was much talk of the need for health investment, with politicians from all sides promising differing sums of revenue and capital, if and when they were elected. Although the result of a Hung Parliament was a surprise to many, the public concern about healthcare, and the lack of clear long-term NHS planning, are a shock to no one. 

Despite all the noise and bluster, the final investment figure to ‘fix the NHS’ looks likely to be a relatively small investment versus the ‘£20 billion plus’ revenue shortfall. While political parties traded blows in the run-up to the Election over the state of revenue and capital needed, what is becoming ever more apparent is that the present government will be simply looking to continue to juggle the financial shortfall around the system. We can only hope for significantly better capital funding on buildings and IT, and not just clinical equipment, in the coming budgets.