FEATURE ARTICLES

As hospitals continue to digitise clinical processes, the promise of faster, safer care increasingly depends on how well digital tools align with day-to-day operations. Vicky Morley, senior clinical advisor at Systematic, explores how fragmented operational systems create hidden friction in hospitals, and how better alignment between digital platforms and frontline operations can streamline care delivery and improve patient flow.

According to the WHO, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a growing threat to global health – one that is placing populations at heightened risk. Paul Owen, global business unit manager – healthcare & life sciences at Mueller Europe, discusses how built environment strategic planning and estates teams can help to manage this growing crisis.

Following a busy day of networking, keynotes, and meeting with exhibitors, delegates to the IHEEM Wales Regional Conference 2026 made their way to the Celtic Manor Resort Hotel for the 2026 IHEEM Wales Regional Awards presentation.

On 6-7 May, IHEEM, with the Welsh Branch and NHS Wales, Shared Services Partnership, Specialist Estates Services, held its annual Wales Regional Conference at ICC Wales. This year, the event explored solutions for building resilient healthcare estates, managing ageing infrastructure to reduce the risk of critical system failures, and improving resilience and response to outages and emergencies – topics discussed in a conference keynote delivered by Jacqueline Totterdell, director general for health and social services and NHS Wales chief executive. HEJ editor Matt Seex reports.

At Starkstrom’s state-of-the-art demonstration and training facility, the latest vital infrastructure and new technologies can be explored, touched, and configured – helping to visualise and optimise the operating theatres of the future.

NHS & FM commercial advisor James Saunders examines common pitfalls in NHS outsourcing relationships and offers practical recommendations to avoid them.

Given that delivering and maintaining safe and efficient environments is absolutely paramount, the obvious solution to tired and expired flooring would seem to be full replacement. However, this can be extremely expensive, and estates managers ought to consider the many advantages of restoration rather than replacement, as Simon Testa, managing director at resilient floor restoration specialist Stainbusters Cleaning and Hygiene, explains.

Phil Wiltshire, contracts manager at Pensdown Ltd, explains the critical role that modern AV technology systems can play in the overall fabric of healthcare estates, and the positive impact they can have on operational performance.

Towards the end of last year, Bård Rane, a member of the National Association of Norwegian Architects (MNAL) and former head of design and function for the New National University Hospital of Norway and The University Clinic of Akershus, Norway, visited two brand new Danish hospitals, both of which are currently under construction and expected to open in 2027.

With waiting lists remaining at historically high levels, healthcare providers need to urgently build capacity at pace. Simon Squirrell, national sales director at Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, explains how volumetric construction with high pre-manufactured value is transforming healthcare estates.

Utility enabling works are the unseen foundations of major hospital redevelopment. Here, Leon Stefanski, senior project manager in the New QEH Design and Construction team at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn, explores how early-stage infrastructure, multidisciplinary coordination, and cross-team collaboration shape the success of complex NHS transformation programmes.

Steve Heape, chair of IHEEM’s Environmental and Sustainability Advisory Panel, speaks with Andy Yates of the Carbon and Energy Fund and Rob Hilliard of Vital Energi, drawing on their substantial experience delivering energy, mechanical, and Net Zero infrastructure in operational NHS environments. Together, they explore what trusts can – and should – be doing to prepare existing estates for low-carbon heat technologies, including how early estate preparation and critical backlog investment can be aligned to make future Net Zero solutions deliverable, affordable, and resilient.

At Healthcare Estates 2025, Sam Vijatov of Innovation Fire Engineering interviewed Paul Mathews, director at Murphy Philipps Architects, winner of the 2025 Healthcare Estates Architectural Practice of the Year Award.

Andrew Steel, managing director of Airmec Essential Services, outlines the critical importance of fire dampers and in keeping these devices fully maintained and compliant, especially in healthcare facilities.

Timo Ohtonen, managing director and owner of the Finnish health tech company PPO-Elektroniikka Oy, and Gopa Kumar, National President of the National Federation of Engineers for Electrical Safety, discuss the continuing importance of electrical safety within Group 2 healthcare facilities, with reference to examples in India and Ukraine.

MTX Contracts has officially broken ground at Wycombe Hospital and Llantrisant Health Park – two transformative healthcare developments which are the latest in a string of projects delivering new facilities and improved patient care across the UK.

Across the UK and internationally, a recurring requirement is appearing within critical medical equipment specifications: a maximum supply of 3 per cent voltage total harmonic distortion (THDv). This limit is consistently referenced in advanced MRI systems, radiotherapy linear accelerators, digital imaging platforms, and other precision clinical technologies. Understanding this limit – and its implications – is vital for safe, efficient equipment operation. Here, John Mitchell, global sales and marketing director at CP Automation, and independent power management consultant Steve Young MIET, explain why, in healthcare and medical facilities, 3 per cent THDv matters.

Nigel Thomas, national specification and project sales manager at ABB Electrification, discusses the ways in which implementing BMS can expose healthcare estates to critical vulnerabilities, and explains how estates teams can implement the correct cybersecurity safeguards.

Evidence suggests that LEDs might be causing harm to our cells – meaning that the health of the population is being adversely affected by spending lots of time indoors without daily exposure to daylight or full spectrum lighting. However, there are measures that designers and facilities managers can take to improve the situation, as Lorraine Calcott, director and principal designer at it does Lighting Ltd, explains.

Despite it being almost eight years since the issuing of the Hackitt report, its key recommendations remain largely unimplemented. This is particularly true in healthcare settings, where meaningful progress has been limited. As a result, legislation may now be needed to enforce change. In this article, Dr Manjula Meda, Dr Michael Weinbren, and health engineer George McCracken provide real life illustrations of why projects go wrong, and how simple solutions such as identifying risks at the inception of a project would make future hospitals radically safer, as well as saving significant sums of money.