As the government announces an ‘urgent review’ of the New Hospital Programme last month, (July 2024), leading healthcare construction company, Darwin Group spoke to Head of Policy and Strategic Projects for membership organisation, NHS Providers, Amber Jabbal about some of the issues surrounding the NHS and their estates.

In the same week the Shropshire-based healthcare construction specialist launched their own report, ‘The End of the Waiting Line’, a report into how harnessing the potential of flexible modular buildings to directly reduce the NHS backlog of some 7.6 million individual cases can help transform the future of the service and make it secure for the long term, Ms Jabbal told Darwin Group, “While the new government and health service leaders clearly face an uphill struggle to get NHS performance back on track, there are still a lot of great things happening in the service.”

The new Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, is determined to turn the NHS around and has appointed Lord Darzi, an NHS surgeon for more than three decades, to lead an independent investigation into the health service.

Mr Streeting has said he ‘will ask the hard questions, leave no stone unturned, and speak truth to power.’  Meanwhile as Lord Darzi has said, ‘to find the cure you’ve got to first get the diagnosis.’

Lord Darzi’s investigation will be conducted by officials from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), with input from NHS England.

His findings will be the first step on the road to recovery and will be the basis from which we begin to draft the NHS ten-year plan- the roadmap to an NHS fit for the future.

“Frontline staff are doing an incredible job,” Ms Jabbal continued, “despite the huge pressures they face to deliver care to over a million people every day, there is great work to build on to develop the ten-year plan and it will be crucial that every part of the NHS, from NHS leaders to frontline staff and patients, have the chance to be involved in its development.”

Ms Jabbal also told Darwin Group, “We represent NHS Trust leaders and our conversations with the new government will be framed in context of building a responsive and effective NHS that is fit for the future and gives patients, and staff, safe, secure and fit for purpose environments in which to receive their care and to work.

“We would therefore urge Lord Darzi to consider the impact of estate needs and the maintenance repairs backlog on patient and staff safety, the cost of which currently stands at £11.6 billion,” she said.

Discussing the impact of this and the conversations her organisation is having with NHS Trust leaders across the country, the experienced head of policy who’s portfolio at NHS Providers includes NHS ambulance policy, health inequalities, digital, finance and NHS estates, said one of their immediate priorities is to establish what the ‘urgent review’ of the New Hospital Programme means for their members that are part of the programme. At the same time, we must start to explore alternative ways of unlocking capital to improve quality of care, strategically invest in infrastructure transformation and deliver greater value for money.

Nick Dawe, Director of Strategy and Transformation, Darwin Group said, “According to our ‘The End of the Waiting Line’ report, thinking actively about the adaptability of NHS Estates via early engagement and improved collaboration alongside the inclusion of clinical strategies as a ‘golden thread’ during capital building projects is among the most important actions in reducing waste during the patient care journey and building the resilience of the service for future generations. It concludes that smart ways of planning for capital expenditure can result in a higher degree of NHS sustainability.

“As the new Labour administration seeks to put the future of the NHS at the centre of its policy agenda, the new report acts as an important reminder of the need to think holistically and flexibly about how the NHS is managed.”

The report, compiled by Darwin Group, commissioned by Portakabin and endorsed by the NHS Trust membership organisation NHS Providers, isolates five key steps which the authors believe can deliver a fully sustainable future for the NHS. Beyond the adoption of a system-wide approach to securing the NHS Estate, it recommends increased collaboration between different NHS disciplines, a focus on workforce wellbeing by including a clinical perspective on staff management, a plan to actively consider the adaptability of existing NHS buildings to meet future needs and a major focus on reducing waste by active planning.