HOSPITALS & HEALTHCARE
Invest now to safeguard our public services
Steve McGregor from the DMA Group, discusses the right approach to maintenance in public sector buildings, which focuses on prediction, better staff management and upgrades that save money from the outset
T
he recent National Audit Office (NAO) report on public service facility maintenance has exposed a growing crisis: the UK’s public sector buildings face a multi-billion-pound maintenance backlog, with aging HVAC systems at the heart of the problem. Energy inefficiency, emergency repairs and breakdowns are draining government resources and putting essential services at risk. What the NAO report highlights is something we at DMA Group have seen firsthand across many facilities: years of underinvestment in planned maintenance has allowed critical systems like heating, ventilation, and air conditioning to age into inefficiency and ultimately breakdown. In the public sector this translates into disruption to essential services; in the NHS alone, 5,400 clinical service incidents occur every year due to property and infrastructure failures. Poor maintenance in this setting must be addressed as a matter of urgency that extends far beyond the cost of running a building.
Breaking the cycle of reactive maintenance
Traditional maintenance models in the public sector have often been reactive. Systems are left to run until failure, at which point costly repairs—or full replacements—are the only options. This is a short- sighted and unsustainable approach. Emergency callouts are exponentially more expensive than routine upkeep. Moreover, the disruption caused by unexpected HVAC failure in environments like hospitals or care homes can directly impact vulnerable individuals. It’s time to move from reactive to predictive,
smarter, data-driven building maintenance that shifts the emphasis to prevention. Thanks to advancements in AI and IoT technologies, we now have the tools to identify inefficiencies and impending failures before they cause disruption. Smart sensors can monitor the performance of HVAC systems in real time—tracking temperature, vibration, energy consumption, and airflow. AI algorithms can then analyse this data to predict when and where maintenance will be needed, long before issues escalate. While there is an undoubtedly a higher upfront
18 May 2025
www.heatingandventilating.net
Below: Steve McGregor from the DMA Group
cost to this approach than the ‘do nothing and cross your fingers’ reactive maintenance path, the long-term savings are significant and in healthcare facilities, potentially lifesaving.
Upgrade buildings, save money
Public sector services are almost always financially stretched, which is largely why we are now in this critical maintenance backlog situation. Improving buildings, from cutting energy consumption to better managing the staff responsible for their upkeep, can actually save money, however. Take our customer Rye Community Hospital,
for example, the UK’s first Net Zero Community Hospital. It invested heavily in improving the sustainability of its buildings. What’s crucial to this scheme is it made these upgrades in a phased way, starting with an energy audit and then focussing on the quick wins, such as LED lighting and fan upgrades, that would make the biggest impact first. Energy and cost savings have allowed the hospital to develop a five-year life cycle plan with an annual budget based on money that would previously been spent on fuel bills. This structured approach prioritises equipment replacement and infrastructure maintenance, enhancing operational efficiency. Not only has Rye Hospital’s transformation made it more sustainable and cost effective, it has also served to better support the local community.
Decarbonisation contributed to its lease renewal with East Sussex Healthcare Trust for the next 10 years and will potentially support the expansion of services, further improving healthcare access for residents.
Right first-time maintenance
Whatever the operational objectives, better managing the staff responsible for a building’s upkeep – both those on the books and subcontractors – is an important step in improving maintenance outcomes while saving money. Data analytics and supporting software has a role to play here too, tracking the qualifications and experience of teams to ensure ‘right first time’ interventions, while removing some of the administrative burden. Using tools like BiO®, our self-developed
workforce and resource management platform, tasks, processes and communications are all automated. Within our own business, this has led to the elimination of around 12,000 hours of unproductive time annually. For NHS trusts and other public sector organisations in charge of multiple sites, this type of tool can act as they eyes and ears of standardisation, allowing more time to be spent on ensuring essential services run smoothly. The NAO’s report is a wake-up call. We have the technology and expertise to ensure this situation is not repeated. Investment now will pay dividends in the long run
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