In our second NHS England visit in the last few months, we welcomed Rick Lennard, Emma Whigham and Natalie Forrest from the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) team to SDS to discuss plans for the future of NHS healthcare estates.
The New Hospital Programme is a £26 billion initiative that will transform healthcare infrastructure in the UK with the delivery of 40 new hospitals. The programme brings with it exciting opportunities to develop hospitals that are fit for the future; well planned and constructed to enable the delivery of high-quality health care services.
As part of the visit, SDS Chief Revenue Officer Russell James interviewed Rick Lennard, Commercial Director for the New Hospital Programme, asking about plans for the programme, how suppliers can prepare and where collaboration fits in.
You can see the full interview (13 mins) here:
NHP using the power of partnership
There are multi-faceted challenges in coordinating such a large-scale programme of work and the NHP team has reimagined how the hospitals will deliver by planning in partnership, bringing together trusts, clinicians, suppliers, architects, contractors, staff and patients to ensure a collaborative approach to hospital delivery from the first step.
We discussed the high demand for doorsets for the 40 new hospitals planned in the programme; how the market could meet such a need, how product standardisation can deliver reliability and value, and the potential for industry collaboration to ensure demand can be met as the new hospitals move into construction.
Rick said: "The only way to get to delivering first class hospitals is through engagement with the supply chain to bring in the knowledge and experience of suppliers. I think a big part of we can do in the programme is to provide space for organisations like SDS to innovate and to truly listen when you bring new ideas.
"We recognise that we aren't the experts when it comes to providing doorsets, for example, therefore if we can listen to suppliers and factor in your innovations it will lead to better quality outcomes, better quality products and less demand on estates budgets going forward. Where we can make genuine savings, that’s money that can go back into delivering frontline care, which is at the heart of what we do."
"The challenge of creating a design for hospital 2.0 is unbelievably complex and no one organisation could have all the answers, so how we bring all the best organisations together to collaborate is key, and that's what will help us create something we are all immensely proud of for years to come.”
Richard, Emma and Natalie committed to reviewing the doorset specification for the new hospitals with SDS and other market leaders, as well as supporting a collaborative meeting with doorset providers to agree how to tackle some of the key challenges as the programme moves forward.
We are excited to share this video with you and will continue to report on developments in the future. As part of the interview, Rick commented, “These visits are so important, every time you learn something new. The thing I’ve noted today is the sheer pride you have in what you do, your knowledge of the market and your products, and how passionate you all are about what you do.”
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