It is a great to see, a new CEO championing a new infrastructure of a new build hospital which should improve the patient experience, and in turn contribute towards positive outcomes in well- equipped facilities.
From business case to commissioning, a large acute hospital is similar to creating a microcosm town, with all the necessary infrastructure, services, and governance to support a thriving community to provide a high quality of life (or care) for their inhabitants (or patients).The increasing fiscal costs of newly built hospitals, whether in public or private sectors from the cost of the project cycle to operational never stays the same, always increasing due to various factors which leaves no choice for Trust Boards , Investors and Commissioners to fill the fiscal vacuum. It raises various questions, why can we not plan ahead and take bolder decisions.
Thirty-three years ago, as a student, my supervisor joked “it takes multiple personnel (5 people ) to change a light bulb in a hospital environment”. In recognition, hospital environments have to comply with stringent health & safety standards, my real time assessment whilst working as a clinician to COO in differing roles, there are too many people involved at different stages directly and indirectly before a bulb is changed, which unfortunately creates multiple avoidable transactions and time lost and is a symptom of larger systematic issues within hospital operative management systems.
In the NHS and corporate healthcare there are real focus on patient flows and outcomes, but less in support services with systematic loss of sight of the cost of the final product. The impact of Covid 19, unrest in Europe, Global IT issues and beyond is a reality check on how creating a circular self-efficient economy on what’s feasible with advanced technologies will benefit hospital management systems across the world. Without taking away the vital support corporate services staffs provide behind the scenes, there has been limited focus on interconnectivity and to be more efficient, provide value for money, be environmentally sustainable and eco-friendly whilst making use of adaptive technology including AI and not seen as a separate entity to provide care.
I am yet to hear from one corporate service member of staff in last 33 years that their role is to contribute and support clinicians to provide high quality care in a very cost-effective way. There are pockets of innovations and excellent practices within some corporate areas, to spread these champions requires boldness, risk, and failures. Until Senior leaders notice and give real autonomy to frontline leadership (both corporate and clinicians) to run their units like their own households, have access to expert advice as and when necessary, support the cultural and behavioural shifts overtime, real time dashboards on each corporate activity cost to the service, the cost of building and running hospitals will not provide VFM.
A new chief executive has been announced for a trust with major plans to rebuild a hospital in the East of England.
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![New chief for trust seeking hospital rebuild]()
New chief for trust seeking hospital rebuild
hsj.co.uk
