Consider whether your estate may be too big

Kerry Bourne, director of Property Consultancy Services at Essentia Trading, which provides a range of engineering, estates and facilities, and consultancy services to both London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation (GSTT), and to other NHS organisations to help them run more efficiently and cost-effectively, describes some of the initiatives taken by Essentia, GSTT, and other Trusts, to secure optimum value from existing buildings, improve staff working conditions, maximise property-related revenue, and optimise the patient care environment, while reducing costs and improving efficiencies. She also offers some useful ‘pointers’ for Trusts seeing to ‘get more’ out of their estate, especially with the increasing ‘merging’ of the acute setting into the community environment.

Innovation was rightly identified by NHS England’s Five Year Forward View as a crucial factor for improving healthcare, but the focus tends to be on the clinical environment and investment in new technologies. 

However, innovation can come in many forms and, particularly when applied outside of clinical settings, can offer the potential for significant financial savings. The way the NHS manages its non-clinical services is highly important if we are to achieve better quality and more efficient care.