HEALTHCARE ESTATES 2023 KEYNOTES
Getting the sensory aspects right in hospital design
Speaking at last October’s Healthcare Estates 2023 conference, Suzanne MacCormick, an experienced healthcare planner at healthcare consultancy, Spencer Harrison, discussed how getting the sensory aspects of healthcare facilities right plays a critical part in providing the optimal care environment and speeding recovery. While the importance of – for example – selecting the right colours, and providing sufficient light air, and quiet, is well-proven through numerous studies, in some hospitals, these elements are still not being adequately factored in, she told delegates. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Suzanne MacCormick’s keynote address in an early afternoon conference slot on 10 October formed the second ‘half’ of a two-part Health & Social Care Planning session; in the first Natalie Forrest, Senior Responsible Owner at the New Hospital Programme (NHP), updated delegates on progress with the planned construction of 40 new hospitals across England. The former nurse and hospital CEO/COO also explained the principles behind, and anticipated benefits of, the NHP team’s Hospital 2.0 initiative; its aim is to enable many more of the new hospitals required to be built concurrently – by speeding up the planning process, increasing use of standardised components, and harnessing Modern Methods of Construction (see pages 57-61 for a full report).
Clinical planning background Suzanne MacCormick is a clinical planner who works with healthcare leaders globally, and also has a clinical practice, working with patients ‘to achieve life- changing behavioural and emotional change, and optimum health and wellbeing outcomes’. Her current research is in the neuro-plasticity of the brain, and she is particularly interested in ‘the power of the subconscious mind on overall mental and physical health, and how our built environment impacts this’. She began her presentation, ‘Building
for excellent outcomes’, by emphasising that today’s healthcare buildings must not only meet numerous different standards – including those around Net Zero carbon, but must also be easily navigable, ‘totally
‘‘
Suzanne MacCormick told delegates in Manchester: “As part of a complex design team delivering healthcare buildings, I want to really nail down what credence we give to the impact of that environment on us, our wellness, recovery, and staff’s ability to perform.”
accessible’, easy to maintain, improve outcomes, and be affordable and sustainable – ‘quite a big ask’. Addressing the topic both from a healthcare planner’s perspective, and through the lens of her clinical work and research, she said her presentation would consider the topic, ‘How we achieve excellence in outcomes’ in designing new healthcare buildings. Many delegates would be familiar with Winston Churchill’s saying: ‘We shape our buildings, and thereafter they shape us’, but her question was: ‘When we’re
In its constitution, the NHS aspires to the highest standards of excellence and professionalism, to provide the best value for taxpayers’ money, and to be sustainable. However, critically, the NHS puts patients at the heart of everything else
Suzanne MacCormick
designing those buildings, how much thought do we actually give to the impact they have on us once built?” Crediting IHEEM as a Professional Engineering Institute that provides ‘expert and valuable guidance and opportunities’ for engineers and Estate managers, ‘always leading to excellence’, she explained that the Institute now has a Strategic Estates Management Advisory Platform (‘SEMAP’) – on which she represents healthcare planning, and which would be holding a workshop immediately following her presentation. “So,” Suzanne MacCormick said, “we know IHEEM’s purpose, but what is the NHS’s raison d’être? It’s to improve our health and wellbeing, support us to keep mentally and physically well, and help us get better when we’re ill. In its constitution, the NHS aspires to the highest standards of excellence and professionalism, to provide the best value for taxpayers’ money, and to be sustainable. However, critically – and I know
January 2024 Health Estate Journal 31
Courtesy of Healthcare Estates 2023
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