Proposals to fill a provision shortage in East Kent are being considered by the local NHS trust, East Kent Hospitals University Foundation NHS Trust which has set up an estate manager, 2gether Support Solutions.

The trust is deciding between two options, the first creates a major emergency centre at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, an Emergency Hospital at Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) and a planned care hospital in Canterbury. The second option is to create a major emergency centre at Canterbury, planned care hospitals at QEQM and William Harvey. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Of the first option Managing Director of 2gether, Finbarr Murray told attendees at the recent Healthcare Property and Development Conference: “That will go out to consultation in spring, it’s not really what we want to do, but it’s a democratic process. It’s quite large, it’s a £350m development.”

Murray expressed much greater positivity towards the second option: “Our preferred option, the clinicians are certainly more interested in this one, is to use our Canterbury site, new enabling development next to the Canterbury site, which will see about 2500 houses, a developer will provide a shell and a core for us, and then the NHS will fit it out and then it will transfer to a freehold asset to the trust.”

Alder Hey is an innovative Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, which finished a major new building in 2015. David Powell, Director of Development, informed delegates of how it has evolved: “Originally it was a new hospital for kids and now it’s turning into a much campus project.”

Alder Hey have recently released a masterplan by Hopkins Architects, detailing a number of projects being built around the hospital.

Part of the campus development is The Institute in the Park, a £24m development is a research and education centre that opened in 2018.

This is being joined by what Powell described as a: “raft of development, including two mental health schemes that are into production at the moment, Galliford Try are developing the scheme up as we speak.” 

The hospital is also looking to improve their green credentials, Powell explained: “We’ve got a license to go down into the aquifer and bring the water up into the scheme and to get a district heating scheme. We’re also looking at our green transport plan.”

Another trust looking to bring down their carbon emissions are Royal Marsden NHS Trust a specialist cancer service, who are looking to develop a new Combined Heat and Power generator (CHP). Sunil Vyas, Director of Projects & Estates said: “We’ve already got a CHP plant in Sutton, and we have plans to put another CHP plant in Chelsea.”

Vyas described it as “very much an intermediate technology” making carbon savings but “its not going to get you to carbon neutral.”  He said that Trusts had succeeded on many “easy wins” on energy savings, and that “nearly all hospitals have LED lighting.”

Lucy Watson, Chair of the Patients Association warned that some efficiency savings came at the expense of patient well-being, for instance remarking that windows without the ability to be opened were a “hidden saving that is actually a poor saving.”

Watson also remarked on the need for development for mental health estates, citing the importance of a good estate to well-being but that they were “one of the areas which have had the least investment.”

The stress on the service was a key call to action of Watson’, she said “The demand on A&E and on our hospitals has increased enormously, 726 patients waited longer than 12 hours on a trolley.”

The message throughout the Healthcare estates conference was clear: Major investment and development is needed within the built environment to facilitate a health-service that is fit for the needs of the population, not just for the present, but for the future. [/emaillocker]