Healthcare delivery
Bolstering NHS capacity with modular facilities
Helen Marshall discusses how modular facilities are helping the NHS to upgrade capacity. Backed by a boost in funding, they are expected to help relieve waiting list pressures, but they are more than a quick fix.
Upgrading capacity within the NHS is one of the key ways we will reduce waiting lists and offer care to a rising number of patients. New hospitals and theatres require extensive funding, and waiting lists continue to build up over the years that it takes to complete construction.
Modular units offer a way of increasing the
capacity of diagnostics and wards that can be rapidly deployed and easily installed. These units are not just a quick fix; modular units can last decades and represent a significant evolution in healthcare infrastructure. For the NHS, these benefits translate into faster response times to capacity demands, whether for patient care, administrative offices, or even specialised units like laboratories and pharmacies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, modular units were instrumental in expanding hospital capacities, showcasing their potential to support the NHS during crises. The future for modular units is bright, with multiple routes for Trusts to access modular solutions, and a rebooted framework for 2025 expanding to £3.6 billion.
The growing need for capacity NHS waiting lists have been reaching all-time highs for years, exacerbated by the onset of the pandemic four years ago and brought on by a combination of issues, from understaffing and lack of capacity to increased patient numbers resulting from our ageing population. It is estimated that it will take years to clear the backlog, and the increasing need for tight infection control measures and workforce shortages mean it is taking even longer to work through the numbers, which continued to rise throughout 2023. We are beginning to see numbers drop slightly this year (to 7,575,914 in January 2024), but the figures are still staggering. The latest figures for 2024 show that 3.25 million patients have been waiting over 18 weeks, 321,000 have been waiting over a year, and the median wait time for treatment is 15 weeks, almost double the pre-COVID wait time (BMA).
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At the point of GPs, through to diagnostics,
to theatres and wards, capacity needs to be increased in a way that is cost-effective and, more importantly, safe. While the government committed to building 40 new hospitals in England by 2030, delays to projects makes meeting that target increasingly unlikely and, even if it is achievable, a time-critical solution is needed in the interim.
Proven track record Modular units have been around for generations, first used for housing as far back as 1837, and these units have proven their efficiency and effectiveness since then. By 1853, hundreds of modular builds were being shipped to Australia every year. In the UK, modular units were a timely response to the housing crisis post World War II, thanks to their cost efficiency and ease of building. The UK has embraced modular construction, with modular units now a crucial part of NHS infrastructure. They serve as a long- lasting and cost-effective way of expanding
hospital capacity, reinforcing the system’s ability to meet healthcare needs. In 2023, the first modular barn surgical
theatre began construction at Maidstone Hospital in Kent; the new centre is part of a national initiative to create more than 50 surgical hubs throughout England with the capacity to perform over two million additional surgeries over the next three years (Premier Modular). Northwick Park Hospital also gained 32 beds with a modular acute ward, created in time to relieve winter pressures. At Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust in the North East, a permanent modular mental health facility was installed last year, providing urgently needed consultation and treatment rooms for community mental health and crisis teams (Portakabin). At Blackpool teaching hospitals NHS Foundation Trust an innovative endoscopy healthcare unit was developed to alleviate waiting list pressures on the Trust (Medinet), which has proven successful.
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