Response to the announcement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regarding the New Hospitals Programme

The announcement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay, regarding the New Hospitals Programme is a welcome financial commitment to improving the infrastructure of the NHS estate at a time of great challenge for many NHS Trusts.

Through standardisation, the use of modern methods of construction and a new approach to capital project delivery, the programme is drawing upon best practice to enhance delivery, value for money and ultimately improve the patient and workforce experience, creating sustainable infrastructure which will shape the future of healthcare delivery in the UK.

Archus are pleased to be supporting a number of schemes which have been announced as part of the programme, including Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where we are providing expert Programme Management services to support the progression of these transformative hospital developments.

We should recognise that even if all 40 hospitals are successfully built this will still not address the level of investment required in the estate to adequately reduce the serious and significant risk that exists in the short term. At the same time, healthcare continues to see rising demand for its services and rapidly widening health inequalities.

It is imperative that stakeholders in industry continue to work in partnership with the NHS to identify and deliver approaches which can provide immediate improvements to the way care is delivered and improve the environments for patients, visitors and staff. Importantly, we should see this as an evolution, rather than a revolution, where we continue to learn and innovate for the sake of better patient outcomes.

The responsibility is now too great on all of us to implement the most effective change approaches that aid improvements and benefits for the population.