IHEEM WALES REGIONAL CONFERENCE 2023
how much underutilised space or ‘could be’ underutilised space we have? We really need to understand the configuration of such a vast estate.”
The UK Government Property Strategy for 2022-2030 includes details on three main ‘missions’.
set out the approach to recording and risk assessing backlog in the estate based on predicted impact and likelihood. He expanded: “The value of this is, firstly, that it provides a comprehensive management framework, and, secondly, that it is used across the NHS, and is therefore widely understood.” The guide recommends the estate is subject to a detailed survey of all assets five-yearly, with ‘less formal’ annual updates in between. Stuart Douglas said: “Naturally, the estate risks should be linked to, and inform, the corporate risk log, so that your colleagues on the Board can see how the ‘Estates picture’ fits within the whole.”
Risks from single points of failure He continued: “As Judith did earlier, I’d like to emphasise the risks presented by single points of failure, which must be shared with our organisations. There are, of course, articles on events in hospitals in Scotland, England, and Wales, where failures have stopped activity or services, and of course we really need to maintain service continuity.” Stuart Douglas explained that NHS Wales Shared Services is currently working with Welsh Government to develop ‘heat maps’ highlighting where the areas of greatest challenge are backlog-wise, and in fire compliance engineering infrastructure. These would help in generating an easy- to-read dashboard indicating where risk of non-compliance is, and where resources are required.
A deliverable ‘estate vision’ Moving on to the next challenge – ‘Developing a deliverable estate vision’, Stuart Douglas said: “Our ‘Estates’ vision must be focused on service. Nationally we are seeing a desire to ensure that all public services are ‘joined-up’.” Here he showed
30 Health Estate Journal August 2023
a slide highlighting examples of recently completed community and acute care developments in Wales – including the new Grange University Hospital in Llanfrechfa, the Integrated Care Hub in Cardigan, and the Wellbeing Hub at Maelfa in Cardiff. The speaker said: “Many of us would like a portfolio comprising such modern, efficient, and patient-facing stock, but it’s clearly not the case across our patch.” The ‘first step in planning’, Stuart Douglas said, would be to create ‘a full picture of the estate’s performance beyond just backlog and running costs, identifying how well it meets its function’. He asked the audience: “Are we really able to understand how well our estate meets the service needs? Do we know
Utilisation of office space The speaker wondered, ‘as a test and a challenge’, whether Welsh Health Boards were now optimally using all the office space they had pre-COVID. NHS Wales Shared Services had – he explained – developed an ‘agile working strategy’, and was hoping, in the coming months, to ‘rationalise its accommodation to meet that challenge.” In developing the strategy and vision of ‘where the service wanted to arrive at’, NHSWSSP had also looked at what public sector colleagues are doing. Stuart Douglas explained that he he had attended a conference in December at which a UK Government Property Strategy for 2022-2030 had been introduced. This offers a framework for planning and transformation of the public sector estates for police services, fire, local authority, health, and education. He said: “The thing that struck me most was that there are three main ‘missions’, which I’ll briefly describe as we might consider them in healthcare terms. Mission One,” he explained, “is to ‘transform places and services’ – for us to make our healthcare estate a positive and integrated part of the community we serve, contributing to the overall process of levelling up communities in Wales.” Mission Two, meanwhile, involved ‘creating a smaller, better, and greener’ public estate. The speaker said: “I think we are all ready to embrace a better and greener public estate, but our strategy should work to make our estates smaller. As Judith
The speaker said he had been struck – when preparing his presentation – by the fact that the Welsh NHS today operates from two million square metres of floor area, which all needs to be heated, ventilated, maintained, cleaned, and serviced.
Courtesy of the Cabinet Office
Images courtesy of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
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