EVENT REVIEW
a lot of the guesswork out. People can base their actions on facts.” I also caught up with Jim Howlett, Business
Development Manager at RenEnergy, to talk about solar energy in the healthcare sector and the company’s presence at the show. He explained the dual benefits of solar installations: “I think where a lot of healthcare estates are in their Net Zero journey is they’ve got the challenge of how they decarbonise and reduce electricity costs.” Howlett described the growing interest in solar among NHS estates, driven in part by government funding: “We’re starting to see a lot of interest now because funding is now becoming available through the public sector decarbonisation scheme.” He highlighted RenEnergy’s focus for the
show: “We’re trying to show what we can bring to the table in terms of installations particularly focused on solar canopies over
Above: New Hospital Programme brought the whole prototype of its bedroom design to the event.
Above right: Trade media and journalists learning about the details of NHP’s bedroom design.
For example, Power Control launched a modular UPS
system, designed to be quicker to repair, more resilient, and space-efficient – a solution tailored for hospitals where reliable power is critical. Matt de Frece, Head of Sales at Power Control,
shared his perspective on the show and why it remains an important event for his company: “We’ve been at Healthcare Estates a few years in a row now, and that’s because it’s quite a critical market for Power Control – about 35% of what we do is in the medical sector.” Reflecting on the pace and activity of the event, he added: “It’s quite a busy show. We’ve just launched a new product, which is a modular UPS that we think is going to be really popular in the hospital environment.” Tim Checketts, Commercial Director at Bender, reflected
on the scale and impact of the event, saying he was “really excited by the number of people” at the show. “I hadn’t quite expected it to be honest… but certainly really, really impressive,” he said. He highlighted the importance of the show for demonstrating Bender’s solutions: “It’s really interesting because with the constant implementation of new healthcare technology, power networks to support that technology become ever more complex… So you can imagine that if… you’re in the middle of an operation or you’ve got someone hooked up to a kit which is keeping them alive… it becomes extremely important to make sure that the resilience of the power network is at its absolute best.” Bender was showing Pulse, a software platform that
integrates with its IPS systems and a range of third-party devices to provide early warnings of potential power issues and enable remote management. The solution also gives hospitals greater visibility of energy usage, supporting operational efficiency and progress towards Net Zero objectives.
I managed to speak with Stewart Warwick, Inform
Product Manager at KWC DVS, about their product on display. He said: “Inform is our intelligent cloud-based water management system.” He described how it helps estates and facilities teams
take a proactive approach: “It gives estates and facilities managers the information needed to understand their water systems behaviour and take a proactive approach. If they don’t know what the water system is doing, it’s very difficult to make any changes because you don’t have the information to base them upon.” He explained the system’s role in improving efficiency, and said, “If you don’t know where the problem, is it’s very difficult to fix it. So that’s where the data comes in. It takes
32 Health Estate Journal January 2026
car parks, which generates a lot of interest.” You can find out more about the different products on display at the show on our website.
Keynote conference The keynote and conference programme at Healthcare Estates 2025 was enormous. I still remain impressed that the teams responsible for the event managed to deliver such an in-depth, well thought out and relevant programme – and managed to squeeze it into two days. It seemed to cover everything from national policy, digital innovation, engineering excellence and estates leadership, all whilst looking at the core theme. The keynotes themselves and the main flow was structured around five central pillars.
1. Strategic Health & Social Care Planning Sessions focused on system-wide integration, long-term estate transformation, and the shift towards community- based care. Highlights included Dr Manju Patel and Matt Griffiths on NHS anchor institutions, and Jeanette Leach on affordable estate solutions. There was also a talk on NHS staff wellbeing.
2. Governance, Assurance & Compliance Practical governance and compliance challenges were explored, including real-time risk dashboards, the 2023 Procurement Act, linking regulation with patient safety and operational resilience. A notable presentation was a talk on new models of private investment, and what we can learn from historical PPP agreements. Many spoke with me on ways to pay for new healthcare construction.
3. Digital Technology & Innovation Digital transformation ran as a golden thread through the programme, from AI-led estate planning and smart hospital innovations to applied tools for compliance, patient flow, and space management. There was a strong focus was on how data-driven decision-making is reshaping both operational and strategic estates management. Lots of my conversations included mention of this. Several sessions stood out here, including NHS England and NHP’s discussion on the digital future of NHS hospitals.
4. Medical & Healthcare Engineering The IHEEM Technical Platforms provided authoritative updates across decontamination, electrical, ventilation,
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