EVENT REVIEW


Healthcare Estates 2025: Industry in action


IHEEM’s annual event Healthcare Estates returned to Manchester in October 2025, bringing together estates professionals, industry leaders, and NHS staff for two packed days of learning, networking, and future-focused debate. From the moment it opened, the event was abuzz with activity, enthusiastic conversations and a real sense of opportunity and promise for healthcare estates. HEJ’s editor Niamh Marriott reflects on her experience.


Opening the show The event opened with a lively keynote from IHEEM’s CEO Pete Sellars, setting the tone for a conference dedicated to learning, collaboration, and forward-thinking solutions for estates management. Speaking to a packed audience, Sellars reflected


on the show’s theme, ‘Prevention is Better Than Cure,’ highlighting the value of collective learning. “This year’s theme provides a real timely opportunity


for everyone to pause, reflect, and learn from our vast collective knowledge and past experiences, whether they’re good or bad, to help us get it right going forward,” he said. “The next couple of days are about honest discussions about how we can do things better.” He outlined the major challenges facing estates


professionals, including “the largest capital investment programme in England ever, increasing infrastructure risk and backlog maintenance, workforce challenges, Net Zero,” and the need to embrace new technologies. Sellars noted that despite these pressures, the event was


a chance to share successes as well as tackle the sector’s obstacles: “There’s been many, and we shouldn’t forget them. We should also talk about that as we think about the future.” Attendees were promised a packed programme


over the two days, all designed to foster networking, knowledge sharing, and celebration of achievements. Sellars highlighted the scale of the exhibition: “I think


we’ve got the largest exhibition event anywhere in Europe, with something like 270 exhibitors here for the next few days. You’ve got a fantastic opportunity to go talk to them, see what they’ve got to offer in terms of helping you deliver your services, what new innovative products they have – they’re there to help. They’re there to share. Please engage.” Sellars’ opening remarks struck a balance between


humour, inspiration, and pragmatism. His personable style, combined with a clear focus on the sector’s challenges and opportunities, set an energised and reflective tone for the show.


His comments were immediately followed by three


industry heavyweights – Eddie McLaughlan (NHS Scotland), Stuart Douglas (NHS Wales), and Simon Corben (NHS England), who each spoke on how preventive strategies can shape the future of healthcare estates.


Learning lessons Eddie McLaughlan focused on lessons learned that were emerging from a Scottish hospitals inquiry, stressing that the issues under scrutiny are not unique to Scotland and carry relevance for healthcare estates across the UK.


He explained that the public


inquiry is examining problems linked to the delivery of two major hospitals in Scotland, and emphasised that the inquiry is about learning, not blame. “It’s not about finding who’s going to get the blame for all the things that went wrong, it’s about learning the lessons through,” he said. He cautioned against viewing failures as the result of poor intent. “You don’t get these enquiries because hospitals are being built by people who are cowboys… you get these problems because serious people trying to do a good job can find themselves in circumstances where the outcome they get is not the outcome they sought to get.” Turning to practical lessons, McLaughlan outlined key


themes, starting with assurance and compliance. “It’s important in delivering a project… to make sure that the compliance is positively verified,” he said. On the use of guidance, he urged caution when deviating


from established standards. “When you deviate from the guidance… you have to make sure that you’ve discharged your duties under the relevant legislation,” he said. He also highlighted communication and culture as critical success factors, warning that pressure to meet time and cost targets can undermine quality. “If you lose the balance between time, cost and quality, you can end up with a hospital that you then have to go back and put more time and more cost into,” he said.


Sharing knowledge and findings Sharing learning nationally was another core message. “There’s no point in Glasgow learning problems about its new building and then not telling everybody else,” he said, underlining the importance of collective learning across health systems.


January 2026 Health Estate Journal 29


IHEEM’s CEO Pete Sellars opening the keynote sessions at Heaathcare Estates 2025.


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