Estates strategy 2022-2025
This estates strategy is one of the key enablers to deliver the truly transformational changes that BHT wishes to achieve in order to deliver outstanding care, a great place to work and healthy communities as set out in the Trusts vision and new clinical strategy. Our estates strategy must prepare us for future pandemics and enable us to deliver integrated care with greater guarantees of infection prevention and control. It must enable us to be financially sustainable by reducing the inefficiencies of delivering critical care from old estate across two sites and tackle our £200m backlog maintenance.
The estates strategy is also informed by the 2021 Seven Facet survey, ERIC (Estates Returns Information Collection) operating metrics and PLACE (Patient-led Assessments of the Care Environment) data. It sets out the key metrics and targets that we wish to achieve to deliver better patient, staff and visitor experience and to significantly improve our operating efficiencies.
This estates strategy has multiple priorities of clinical safety, estates compliance, and meeting new national priorities such as the 2021 new cleaning standards and net zero. There are opportunities through new approaches to digital technology, one public estate and the Integrated Care System (ICS) to consider clinical priorities and new pathways through a place based and regional lens and we continue to work with our system partners on these.
However, we have important estates challenges to address:
- Our current acute hospital services are split between Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe, with the emergency department at Stoke Mandeville and cardiac and stroke services at Wycombe. Critical care services are provided across both sites which presents operational and financial challenges managing medical and nursing rotas.
- The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted that there is a stronger case than ever for separating planned and unplanned care services. The current estate has impacted our ability to continue to deliver essential planned care services alongside emergency services.
- Stoke Mandeville Hospital pre-dates the formation of the NHS. It was a Cholera Hospital and is now home to the world re-known National Spinal Injuries Centre. However, when visiting this site, it does not strike one as world class and it could not be described to be a great place to work. There is a patchwork of low-rise poor-quality buildings, a lack of space, in parts poor disability access and significant infrastructure issues. Added to this, in Wycombe, the site carries half (£100m) of the total estate backlog maintenance issues.
- Our community hospitals provide important access to non-emergency care for patients, yet due to their age and condition are some of the most non accessible buildings from a disability and dementia perspective. These have around £11m backlog maintenance to repair, but their design, even with repair, will not meet modern day accessibility standards.
- Not all the estate or the services within the estate are in the ideal locations. Stoke Mandeville Hospital once situated on the edge of Aylesbury is now firmly set in a large-sprawling housing estate, making access by road or indeed helicopter difficult.
We will continue to work with the public, stakeholders and clinical leads to consider the proposed developments set out in in this strategy to identify the best way forwards. We have also applied to the Hospitals Infrastructure Programme to support the redevelopment of our estate as ultimately this strategy is about providing the best healthcare facilities for the population of Buckinghamshire and the Trust’s workforce. We want to achieve modern and fit for purpose healthcare facilities, clinically safe environments and an estate that we can all be proud of.