Are we building the best hospitals for the future?

‘Do we know which hospital to build and why we’re doing it’ was the title of a first day presentation by Stephen Wright, an independent consultant and Honorary Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture – who has undertaken economic consultancy across both developed and developing countries, with institutions including the WHO, the European Commission, and the World Bank, as well as for companies and governments – at October’s ‘hybrid’ Healthcare Estates conference. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Stephen Wright began his conference address by explaining that he would be focusing on ‘the hospitals we should be building, and why we’re building them – from an international perspective’. He told delegates he had spent much of his working life overseas, the majority of it in healthcare. He said: “I’m thus interested in the ‘compare and contrast business’ with the UK. He said: “The immediate reason for talking to you will in fact appear in another part of the conference today – a group of colleagues got together to make a submission for the Wolfson Economics Prize 2021 – a very eclectic, large, and interesting prize competition, which is not in fact run every year, and revolves around different subjects depending on the year. For instance, previously it’s been on the future of the Euro, and 'garden city' planning in the UK, but this year the topic to be addressed was: ‘How would you design and plan new hospitals to improve patient experience, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing, and integration?’

Submission founded on four principles