FEATURE ARTICLES

For the NHS to achieve Net Zero by 2040, hospitals must re-think their approach to heating and cooling. By adopting integrated, data-driven energy solutions, NHS estates can significantly cut carbon emissions while improving patient comfort and operational efficiency. Here, Graham Smith, Commercial director UK&I at Carrier Commercial HVAC, explores the role of heat pumps and heat networks in decarbonising NHS facilities, addressing both the technical challenges, and the opportunities they present.

Nigel Booen, director of Design at multi-skilled planning consultancy, Boyer (part of Leaders Romans Group), discusses the growing potential to adapt empty or underutilised high street premises for healthcare use, and sets out a number of key architectural considerations when converting a building for this purpose.

The NHS is transforming how it delivers healthcare across the UK, with ambitious plans to establish a nationwide network of community health centres – bringing essential medical services closer to local communities. These community health hubs will provide a range of primary care services under one roof – from GP consultations to diagnostic testing and mental health support. Tony Huggins, managing director at David Bailey Furniture Systems, examines fitted furniture’s role in maintaining infection control in such settings, as well as creating an efficient, conducive, and appealing patient and staff environment.

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria is a persistent bacterium that poses a significant risk in augmented care facilities. Carole Armstrong, Senior Marketing and Communications manager at Aquatools in the UK, considers the role of design in healthcare facilities to reduce this risk at the specification stage, and how to maintain water quality within an operational facility. She takes a closer look at point-of-use filters as a secondary barrier, and the technology behind the solution.

As the saying goes, ‘when you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp’. For NHS estates teams, that tension between firefighting and long-term planning is all too familiar. In this article, Paul Mercer, Stephen Wright, Suzanne MacCormick and Anisha Mayor explore how the Strategic Estates Management Advisory Platform (SEMAP) is helping professionals look beyond the day-to-day, tackling issues from PFI handbacks to digital transformation, and healthcare planning with a strategic lens.

The NHS is entering a transformative decade. Recently, the government announced its 10 Year Plan for the NHS, built upon three pillars of transformation: transitioning from analogue to digital, shifting care from hospitals to communities, and moving from sickness to prevention. In a separate announcement, the NHS was named a recipient of the inaugural Great British Energy investment, which will fund rooftop solar panels for 200 hospitals. Craig Anderson, Decarbonisation consultant at WSP, argues that these developments signal a clear recognition of the urgent need to transform NHS estates, particularly in terms of energy consumption and carbon emissions.

As the UK’s first ‘digital-first’ hospital, the New University Hospital Monklands is breaking new ground, with a digital twin at the heart of this innovation. Paul Cooper, director at Wallace Whittle and lead on MEP design, explores how smart data, live building insights, and real-time simulation are shaping Monklands, and creating a blueprint for the future of healthcare estates. He examines how digital twins help make smarter energy, maintenance, and operational decisions, and what the industry can learn from delivering this technology at scale in one of the most complex built environments.

Sujiv Fonseka and Vakhtang Takov, of Turner & Townsend, a global consultancy specialising in programme and project management, explore the challenges of delivering major capital projects within live NHS hospital environments. Drawing on decades of healthcare project management experience, they highlight how careful planning, stakeholder engagement, and operational resilience are essential to modernising facilities while maintaining continuity of patient care and service performance.

Julia Davies, Healthcare director, and Ingo Braun, Design principal at NBBJ, discuss the design of the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. They explain how architecture can integrate clinical care, research, and sustainability, creating a collaborative and human-centred environment for patients, staff, and researchers.

Rehabilitating inpatients in the average UK hospital is almost an impossible task. Even the most skilled and experienced healthcare professional is limited by what they can achieve within confined patient rooms and busy hallways cluttered with trolleys and unused chairs and beds. Where gyms exist, they are mostly small and overcapacity. This article, written by Peter Eckersley, Iona McAllister, Rebecca Dunkerley, and Annase Wu, explores how thoughtfully designed inpatient rehabilitation spaces can improve patient outcomes, staff efficiency, and the overall recovery experience.

This summer’s three official heatwaves highlighted how unprepared many UK buildings are for extreme temperatures. While warmer weather may be welcome to some, for many it poses serious health risks. Hospitals, where safeguarding vulnerable people is paramount, are particularly exposed. Ola Bialas, Principal Sustainability consultant at Hoare Lea, explores how UK hospitals must adapt to rising temperatures, balancing patient safety, energy use and climate resilience.

Across the UK, nearly three million adults are currently out of work due to ill health. This is not just a public health concern but threatens to undermine regional economic growth, says Terry Stocks, director of Property and Healthcare lead UK&I at AtkinsRéalis. He explains how strategic investment in healthcare estates can improve wellbeing, regenerate communities, and drive long-term prosperity.

As the New Hospital Programme develops its Hospital 2.0 (H2.0) design, one of the most significant innovations is the move to100 per cent single bedrooms. To understand why this matters, and how the prototype bedroom is helping to solve problems before construction begins, HEJ spoke with Stuart Thatcher, Integration lead for Technical Services at the New Hospital Programme.

The nominees have been announced for the 12 categories of this year’s Healthcare Estates IHEEM Awards. Entries were described as being of an exceptionally high standard, with strong competition across all categories. The shortlists were finalised following detailed assessment by a panel of judges, who reviewed and scored hundreds of submissions.

Tania Davies, COO at the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM), has played a central role in transforming the Institute and supporting its members through some of the industry’s biggest challenges. In conversation with HEJ, she discusses the future of Healthcare Estates, IHEEM’s sustainability drive, inspiring the next generation of engineers, and why collaboration remains key to future success.

Nigel Thomas, National Specification and Projects Sales manager at ABB, discusses the importance of hospitals and other healthcare facilities having the most resilient possible power infrastructure.

With improving the environmental conditions within healthcare estate buildings, while reducing operating costs and carbon emissions, an increasing focus for NHS healthcare engineers, 6RG’s Vincent McGonagle says the need for evidence-led interventions in building performance is ‘more important than ever’.

In the healthcare sector, patients are more susceptible than most to the dangers posed by Legionella bacteria. The CEO at Legionella testing specialist, Hydrosense, explains how healthcare establishments can ‘go beyond compliance’ to better protect their patients, staff, and visitors, against this tenuous microorganism.

Dr Iyad Al-Attar, a mechanical engineer, air quality consultant, and a Visiting Academic Fellow in the School of Aerospace, Transport, and Manufacturing at Cranfield University, considers what he dubs the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) ‘gaps’ in healthcare facilities, and explores the potential for attaining and maintaining clean, fresh air for patients, staff, and visitors.

With the new financial year’s budgets now in full effect, healthcare estates teams have begun planning their refurbishment projects, with many considering how they might more efficiently, sustainably, and compliantly, manage their water systems. One technology rising to meet the challenge is remote digital water monitoring – a ‘smart, data-driven approach’ that automated water monitoring specialist, Angel Guard, says is ‘already reshaping’ how many buildings – including in healthcare, approach water system management. The company’s CEO, Jonathan Waggott, explains.