The power of data in your digital estate

With the Government committing to over £159 billion in core funding, and a further £22.4 billlion in COVID-19 investment, in healthcare in 2022, there is now, ‘more than ever’, a need for NHS Trusts to understand the condition and 'fitness for purpose' of their estates. Here Brook Smith, a Partner at independent construction and property management consultants, RLB UK, and head of Building Surveying in its Birmingham office, argues that against this backdrop, the availability of accurate, timely data in easily accessible form on the condition of buildings and other key ‘estates-related’ Trust ‘assets’ has never been more vital.

With this investment now being made available to Trusts, one of the critical factors in triggering allocated funding is accurately reporting the current status of individual estates and their backlog maintenance profile – both outstanding and pending – as well as how any planned expenditure fits into their Estate Strategy or masterplanning activities.

Today, to produce outline business cases and develop these business cases into investment, as well as more effectively managing their built assets, NHS Trusts need to be able to rely on accurate bases of data. Here, however, comes the rub – the most common theme we hear from healthcare professionals in Estates Departments across the country is the lack of confidence or trust in their estate information, with baseline data requiring significant interpretation and filtering by the Trusts’ Estate Departments to establish their current portfolio position.