First breakfast seminar shares the Archus vision for the Hospitals of the Future
Our in-house health planning experts, Conor Ellis and Nicola Clemo, had the opportunity to share their vision of Hospitals of the Future during the first Archus Breakfast Seminar held on 8th July 2021. The presentation to healthcare professionals focused on the design and function of future hospitals, ensuring that they would satisfy the National Health Priority Areas and benefit from lessons learned during the recent pandemic.
As the healthcare infrastructure specialist, Archus is committed to sharing such insights and has planned a wider series of breakfast seminars. These short, early-morning workshops are designed by the Archus team to offer insights on the most pressing issues and opportunities in the healthcare infrastructure sector.
This first seminar included insights about how to improve planning outcomes. Being clear on the scope of technical inputs, and focusing on clear deliverables as much as upon regulation and legal, ensuring there is a sensible budget for advisors whilst being realistic about timescales were all messages identified during the session. The subsequent wider discussion about considered design to ensure the adoption of National Health Service Improvement centrally as well as for local providers was invaluable. It covered topics as diverse as system integrated planning, the greater emphasis on out-of-hospital / intermediate care, fast track ambulatory care, wellbeing hubs, and integrated IT.
The vision for the future of hospitals has been crystallised by the proposed shift away from the traditional planners focus on acute care, to incorporating the wider community and social care needs. This will allow for a transformative shift in how hospitals and healthcare estate is designed and operated. High-tech digital hospitals will retain a distinct but amended function whereby they are supported by local and elective centres. Design flair is needed, but it is how the hospital will function that will be of paramount importance; including standardisation of same room concepts. Furthermore, the pandemic has shown the need for not only the separation of patient flows but also the inclusion of rest and quiet support areas for staff becoming imperative requirements in any new design; in light of their importance for health and wellbeing.
Another key area of discussion was the need to place digital at the heart of design and operations to allow the transformation of operations and, therefore, the workforce model. This is vitally important considering the current levels of burnout amongst staff and the current 100,000 vacancies that, if remain unresolved, would rise to 250,000 by 2030.
The second seminar in our 2021 Breakfast Series will discuss how to use capital to maximise value, and how to harness digital technologies to deliver high-quality experiences whilst reducing backlog. We encourage healthcare professionals to reserve their free place and be part of this next event, taking place virtually on 7th October 2021, from 8.45am. Register here.
