IHEEM WALES REGIONAL CONFERENCE 2023
NHS Wales CEO positive despite current challenges
Giving the opening keynote on the first day of IHEEM’s Wales Regional Conference in Cardiff in May, Judith Paget CBE, Director General of Health and Social Services, and CEO, NHS Wales, discussed ‘what Wales’s future healthcare estate needs to look like’, and some of the challenges and opportunities for EFM personnel working at the country’s NHS Health Boards and Trusts. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Titled ‘Confronting the Estates Challenges of the Future’, the IHEEM Wales Regional Conference took place from 11-12 May 2023 at Cardiff City Stadium, alongside an exhibition. The evening of the first day also saw a gala awards dinner held at the historic Coal Exchange Hotel in Cardiff Bay. Prior to the presentation of five awards,
(see HEJ – June 2023), guests enjoying pre-dinner drinks were entertained by the Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir, and an interesting presentation on the history of Cardiff Bay and the city’s docks, and the hotel itself, from Graham Stanton, who chairs the IHEEM AE(D) Registration Board, and is a member of the Decontamination Technology Platform and the Technical Platform Committee. After
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I thought I would set out how I see some of the challenges we face together, as clinical staff, engineers, and estates professionals – because we absolutely all need to work together to ensure we have a modern, more resilient state
Judith Paget, NHS Wales
dinner, opera singer, broadcaster, and star of the
Go.Compare insurance comparison website, Wynne Evans, entertained guests with some memorable moments from his varied career, before closing with a passionate rendition of ‘The Impossible Dream’.
Topical conference themes Welcoming delegates at the start of the conference’s first morning, IHEEM CEO, Pete Sellars, said that over the following two days they would hear from leading healthcare figures on subjects including the Net Zero agenda; infrastructure; compliance, governance and assurance; healthcare planning; workforce requirements, planning, and training, and the pressing need for more healthcare engineers. He then introduced the first keynote speaker, Judith Paget, who recalled that the last time she spoke at an IHEEM Welsh conference, she had discussed the then recently completed 100% single-roomed Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan in Ebbw Vale, and staff there’s early experiences at the new hospital. Having been Aneurin Bevan University Health Board CEO immediately before taking up her current role, she said she was
especially looking forward to hearing what her successor as CEO at the Health Board, Nicola Prygodzicz, had to say, in the conference presentation following hers.
Standpoint ‘on some of the challenges’ Judith Paget began: “I thought I would set out how I see some of the challenges we face together, as clinical staff, engineers, and estates professionals – because we absolutely all need to work together to ensure we have a modern, more resilient state. The first thing to say is that we must acknowledge we have an ageing estate; 61% of it built pre-1995, and NHS Wales is now reporting a very significant backlog maintenance figure, for the first time exceeding £1 bn.” Against this backdrop, the speaker
stressed the need to ensure that the service was collecting and delivering accurate estates and facilities performance management information. She said: “It’s vital to us all to be able to assess the state of our estate, its use, and functionality, and I know Shared Services Partnership is doing some fantastic work across Wales focusing on estate and engineering risks.
Discussing the country’s healthcare estate, Judith Paget CBE, Director General of Health and Social Services, and CEO, NHS Wales, said capital funding needed to continue to be targeted at those areas seen as posing the greatest risks to service continuity, patient and staff safety, and statutory compliance.
34 Health Estate Journal August 2023
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