Changes inprospect as we return to‘the new normal’

Emma Bolton, Area director (North East and Leeds), Community Ventures (Management), and Louise English, Capital Planning and Property manager, North Tees and Hartlepool Solutions, consider how the physical healthcare environment can continue to provide a safe, fit-for-purpose setting for high quality care as services start to be recommissioned, and planned care recommences, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The authors also consider whether the COVID-19 pandemic might permanently change how existing healthcare estates are utilised, and additional measures that may need to be implemented, as well as the potential impact on future health estate strategies and developments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted the healthcare sector estate, changing the way that buildings are utilised, and necessitating a change in approach to what has traditionally been a face-to-face service delivery model. While some sectors are giving consideration to restoring their standard workforce practices, or adapting the workplace to minimise the risk of infection, caring for patients with COVID19 will become part of ‘business as usual’ for healthcare providers for the foreseeable future, and, as such, the built environment that they operate in needs to adapt, both now and in the future, in order to continue to effectively and safely support the provision of healthcare services for all.

This article explores how the physical healthcare environment can continue to protect and meet the needs of its workforce and patients as services start to be recommissioned, and planned care – which was paused as the pandemic took hold – recommences. Additionally, it considers whether the COVID-19 pandemic might permanently change how existing healthcare estates are utilised, and explores what this might mean for future health estate strategies and developments