INTERVIEW
From the seminar sessions to the packed Exhibitor’s Hall, people were engaged with the industry’s biggest challenges – and their solutions, at the show.
Absolutely. Do you employ apprentices or have graduate schemes? Are you working with universities or schools to encourage people into the industry? AP: We have some engineering apprentices, which is good but only a small number – less than five on the ENF apprenticeship. We’ve got two survey apprentices who are just about to be chartered, which is great. But we’ve got to do more, and that’s where we are focusing our efforts. We also try to engage with universities, schools, and
other educational initiatives to give people exposure to healthcare estates work early. The idea is to show that healthcare estates and facilities can be a long-term, rewarding career.
The audience was actively engaged with each seminar and interview session, with all looking to learn from each other.
On workforce diversity, there’s a notable lack across the industry. Are you trying to address that? AP: Absolutely! I’ll let my colleague Laura speak to that because, recently, several of our team have been involved in presentations on women in construction. We have a diverse workforce, which is really important for us to continue developing.
Laura, thank you for joining us. Could you elaborate
on diversity and inclusion? Laura Wilkes: Yeah, absolutely. As Andrew said, the industry is very male and very white, so promoting diversity, inclusion, and belonging within RFL PS is vital. This year, we established a Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging Group with representation across the organisation. It’s sponsored by an exec but not led by one. Representation exists at all levels, looking at how we can drive future strategy. There’s more work to do, but it’s critical in building on
what Andrew was saying about workforce challenges and attracting people across the country. Making RFL PS an exciting and appealing place to work for a wide group is challenging, but essential.
That leads to my next question about positive outcomes. What impact has your work had on healthcare estates, facilities, patients, and staff? LW: I’d like to talk about Finchley Memorial Hospital Community Diagnostic Centre. We’ve been involved since 2021, right at the start of the CDC programme. The idea was to stand up services quickly, get business cases approved, trial solutions, and then make them permanent. We brought in business case writers and construction
project managers to set up equipment as soon as funding was available. We’ve stayed with the project to ensure services meet targets and improve throughput. To date, the centre has delivered over 450,000 tests,
from MRI to phlebotomy, with all core CDC services in place. We built a Power BI reporting tool to track performance: patient numbers, DNA rates, GP direct access, and other metrics. This allows targeted projects to improve digital access and primary care integration. Small, sharp interventions help the centre meet its objectives.
So in terms of data gathering and monitoring it, how often is that happening? Who has access to that data? How is it shown, analysed? LW: So, what we’ve done is build a tool, the challenge has been to make it as automated as we can. The starting point was the service managers not believing us that it would be correct, and separately keeping their own excel schedules of ‘this is how many patients have been
26 Health Estate Journal February 2026
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