New Hospital Programme: ‘We’re not just builders’

The New Hospital Programme has been tasked with transforming and modernising NHS healthcare facilities in England. It is, the team behind it says, ‘a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink our approach to the NHS – much more than a set of new buildings, it’s a whole new way of working’. Transformation director and Chief Nurse, Josie Rudman, outlines ‘the programme’s ambition, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead’.

Our mission is to replace outdated infrastructure with facilities for both patients and staff that are on the cutting edge of modern technology, innovation, and sustainability. We will radically improve the way hospitals are designed, procured, and built, but this is more than a construction process; it is about the whole way the NHS operates, and a real chance to develop and deliver much-needed extra capacity. Within the New Hospital Programme, it is the Transformation Team’s job to ensure that this happens. We are the middle person, working with hospital Trusts to help them achieve what they need from new buildings, and helping the construction sector and suppliers to deliver on that need.

We will be there all the way – from the design phase and demand and capacity modelling, through creating flexible clinical and staff spaces, and beyond opening to post-occupation learning.