HEALTHCARE ESTATES 2023 KEYNOTES
The ‘Five Human Factors’ method is ‘about studying and understanding the cognitive, social, cultural, physical, and emotional factors that make up a complete customer / patient /staff experience – in other words our experience as humans’.
‘know how they make us feel’. She said: “And when we feel better as humans, we get well as humans. So, we know – innately and experientially – about excellence.” Summing up, she said: “Building for
excellence is about building for optimal experience and wellness – for everyone working in a building, and every patient. Do the wrong thing and we cause cognitive overload. So, we know we can use colours that calm, nurture, heal, and make us feel better. We also know we can develop acoustics that really help minimise noise, and help us subliminally feel better, and wayfinding and colours that subconsciously help us get to our destination. “Similarly, provide rest areas that link
to nature, greenery, and health, and have fresh air and light that ensure healing, boost mood, lower heart rate, and increase energy levels, and we can eliminate the pressure cooker effect buildings can have. Finally – on people – we need to ensure we rely on teamwork; i.e. not just the individual roles that make up a building programme. So, an architect working hand in glove with the clinical planner, who in turn works with the clinical teams to get the right thing, meet the right challenges, and get the right results and skills at the right time. Interestingly and very perceptively,” Suzanne MacCormick said, “Einstein noted that that ‘Excellence is doing a common thing in an uncommon way’. Perhaps that should be our mantra? “Our buildings undoubtedly shape and impact us,” she concluded. “So let’s build for health and wellbeing to improve those health outcomes.” This closed the second part of an interesting session, and, having thanked both speakers, the session’s chair, Paul Fenton, invited the audience to put any questions to Natalie Forrest and Suzanne MacCormick.
Audience questions The first question centered on how the New Hospital Programme team would
address the six years Natalie Forrest had explained that it takes, on average, to get the business case for a new healthcare facility approved. She said: “This is definitely a work in progress – because there are so many agencies involved in putting together a business case – but we’ve set ourselves a challenge to cut the period to two and a half years.” Another delegate asked whether – with MMC a key route for delivering the new hospitals, there was a sufficient pipeline of such schemes for MMC contractors to justify investing in large factories to deliver them. Natalie Forrest said: “Yes, absolutely; 40 hospitals to start with, but earlier this year we secured a rolling programme of investment into the NHS. It’s thus not just about the 40 hospitals. One of the objectives is to build that capability within the system, so we can keep going. Those familiar with our estate will know there aren’t just 40 hospitals needing to be built – so, absolutely, there is a pipeline.” Natalie Forrest was then asked
what lessons had been taken from the ‘industrialised construction’ operated in the 1960s with high-rise blocks? She replied: “Well, as Suzanne said, I think it’s key that ‘no one size fits all’ – and high-rise buildings are not environments we particularly want to build hospitals in. There will be some, but what is key is to take and implement all the learning around fire compliance, and the many new standards being put in place. We recognise we need to advance, and we have different expectations. With high- rise facilities particularly, fire safety is the biggest priority.” A senior representative from the Design in Mental Health Network was particularly interested in the role of co-production, and asked both speakers about working with people with lived experience. Natalie Forrest said: “I’ll answer first –
on what we’re doing in the New Hospital Programme. Everything Suzanne spoke about resonated with this work, because
many of you will be aware that I’m a nurse, and have worked in these facilities for 35 years, so I understand what makes a difference to the workforce and patients. Suzanne’s right; we must take into account the human factor, and we have a whole team whose sole purpose is to engage with patients, the public, and staff, to understand what their needs are, and enhance both the patient experience and clinical outcomes. We absolutely have to do that.” She continued: “Regardless of specialty,
it’s the same principle of co-design, while none of the new schemes we are working on will get a ‘one-size-fits all’ hospital. We are developing the clinical standards with Trusts and the Royal Colleges, but the project teams will put together the components in the way that works best for them and the services they’re delivering.” Suzanne MacCormick added: “It’s really important to understand how people feel, but also to know that facts and feelings aren’t the same thing, which is why working with patients is so critical. It’s also about asking the right questions of both staff and patients, and then aligning that with all the other design intelligence and expertise.”
Work with ‘important new stakeholders’ Natalie Forrest was then asked what, if anything, the NHP central team can do to help Trusts ‘work well with important new stakeholders’, such as Integrated Care Boards. She replied: “I’d love to help everyone do everything, but I can’t, and it’s important to recognise that the Integrated Care Systems are now maturing, and have that responsibility, and indeed some of my NHP team colleagues and I participated last week in East of England events with the Integrated Care Systems in the region only last week.” She continued: “We rely on healthcare planners to understand how to translate that into what we need. As regards
January 2024 Health Estate Journal 35
Courtesy of Suzanne MacCormick
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