CONSTRUCTION
Converging technologies signal an exciting future
Karen Davenport, Frameworks director for BAM Construct UK, looks at how healthcare estates are set to continue a trend of evolution in expectations and delivery of new facilities.
Not so long ago, a healthcare client wanting a new facility was keen, above all, to know two things: how much will it cost, and when will it be ready? Things are changing very quickly. COVID-19 has been one of many factors which has driven an acceleration of what is possible, but there is a gathering momentum behind how we create efficient future healthcare estates, and what we believe is achievable in new buildings and the existing estate. The NHS Nightingale programme provided evidence that the construction industry could build remarkably quickly, albeit in extraordinary circumstances. It also revealed, for example in the Nightingale facilities for NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, that contractors have the capacity and capability to integrate and collaborate quickly, in a matter of weeks, to design and build. This proves that the future of healthcare construction must surely entail a closer integration of strategic estate development, design, construction, and management. It has also proven that there is capacity to deliver better buildings, to build faster, to build greener, to harness standardisation, and to do all this more economically than before.
The work of the Cabinet Office, Infrastructure and Projects Authority, and public and industry teams, for The Construction Playbook has further strengthened the case for modernisation – by developing ambitious yet achievable
The interior of a COVID-19 testing centre in Newport, South Wales.
policies for improvements in procurement, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), early engagement, and governance.
Adopting a more ambitious mindset for estate development
The questions asked before new facilities are developed can and should be more ambitious and wide-ranging. Estate developers are now able to take advantage of a range of additional outcomes from facilities development, in addition to the existing need to serve the local community. They can also identify time, cost and quality, whole-life cost, Net Zero carbon (embodied and operational), Modern Methods of Construction, social value generation, and end-of-life future- proofing, as valid parts of a procurement process.
The answers are increasingly within our
industry’s grasp to deliver, through a more comprehensive partnership than has previously been possible. This broad agenda is captured in the policies of The Construction Playbook, which outlines how contracting authorities and suppliers, including the supply chain, should engage with each other.
An important factor in all of the Playbook’s 14 key policies is this longer- term view of what a building is – an asset with a lifespan, costs running along that lifespan, and data enabling its use to be optimised, and possibly extended, taking into account the end of its life.
Creating ‘market-ready products and processes’ Some of the Playbook’s vision is at the emergent stages, and some is in the cusp of change already. The Construction Innovation Hub is re-shaping how construction delivers, and can change the game. Our industry is engaged in one of the most transformational exercises it has ever known. The Construction Innovation Hub is a government-backed multi-partner programme pioneering change for buildings and infrastructure in procurement, design, delivery, and operation, to create market-ready products and processes.
Even MRI facilities – such as these created for Leeds General Infirmary recently – can be streamlined – as part of the future for healthcare construction.
The Hub has just launched the Value Toolkit – the second phase of its programme, aimed at helping clients to identify, prioritise, capture, and monitor, what they want to achieve from their asset in terms of its outcomes – from sustainability, through zero carbon, to job creation, and all the other elements that
June 2021 Health Estate Journal 51
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