The potential for Passivhaus design in healthcare

Winter is an appropriate time to think about the excessive heating costs that hospitals around the UK are racking up in order to keep patients comfortable all day, every day. However, in the Höchst district of Frankfurt, the world’s first Passivhaus hospital, the new Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst, is underway, with construction of the new 664-bed facility (which will be equipped with 10 operating theatres) due for completion in the first half of 2019, and it is time we took a note of this form of construction’s positive implications for both the public purse and patient and staff welfare, as well as the environment. The good news is that the potential for 80–90% savings on heating can be achieved with retrofit as well as new-build. 

In the Sustainable Development Unit report, Securing Healthy Returns, published in June 2016, John Holden, director of Policy, Partnerships & Innovation for NHS England, acknowledges that ‘The evidence presented here shows that we don’t always have to choose between saving financial resources or protecting the environment – indeed, the most effective investments can often save money, improve health now, and safeguard the environment on which all future health depends. What’s good for the environment, and good for the patient’s health, can be good for the nation’s finances too’. 

Impacts on many levels