Reading through the NHS England Report Delivering Productivity through the NHS Estate it is clear that the importance of estate to delivering clinical services is recognised as critical to NHS recovery.
And if in eight years the NHS acute hospitals can free up enough space for clinical delivery of the equivalent of 34 general hospitals, then in community care I am confident that we can also work towards and deliver far better utilisation in communities and do so at pace.
Strategy, planning and delivery in one programme
The importance of clinical space availability in the acute estate mirrors our own approach in community care. Our PACE (Productivity Acceleration in Community Estates) programme combines our primary care estate strategy and data expertise with hands on property management and in-depth knowledge of the logistics of flexing space to deliver much needed change.
If hospitals can make so much better use of their estate which is often old and not fit for purpose, then so can we. And we are already working with ICSs, ICBs and service providers to deliver estates solutions enabling the delivery of clinical and preventive priorities in anticipation of a continued and renewed emphasis on a neighbourhood model.
With all of our LIFT buildings in good condition and most being in areas of high health need, they are ideally placed to support the Government’s stated mission to move more care – preventive, diagnostic and treatment – into the communities where it is needed.
Partnership
The key to delivery of this ambitious Government and NHS mission is, of course partnership.
Within CHP, we are using the skills of our operational, strategic and support departments working together to create and deliver plans to support the commissioning and delivery of services from our locally based estate. We have a strong record of working in partnership with the NHS nationally, regionally and locally to support service delivery and we are tackling the optimisation issue with energy and enthusiasm.
Key to the delivery of this shift in focus in accurate data. We have been instrumental in the development of the PCN (Primary Care Networks) toolkit on behalf of NHS England giving ICSs a consistent national framework to support PCNs in developing clinical and estates strategies driven by data and evidence. This is crucial to support neighbourhood, place and system-level planning.
We have already issued data-driven information packs to each ICS where we have LIFT estate, showing what is available and could be used more effectively. And our Regional Directors, alongside our operational Senior Portfolio Managers are working with the NHS to identify, adapt and deliver better value from under-utilised spaces and our additional capital is already being actively managed to flex existing buildings to improve utilisation and support clinical needs.
We proved how quickly and effectively we work when we delivered 10 CDCs to support the drive for more diagnostic tests to cut the NHS backlog. In just one of these – Finchley Memorial Hospital in London, we have supported the delivery of more than 280,000 additional tests and we are committed to doing an equally effective job to support productivity and provide extra value across the LIFT estate in the future.
Wendy Farrington-Chadd
Chief Executive Officer
29 October 2024
Contact your CHP Regional Director
To find out how we can support greater NHS productivity through the utilisation of LIFT assets talk to your Regional Director.
| London | Siobhan Harper | |
| Midlands | James Weaver | j.weaver@communityhealthpartnerships.co.uk |
| North East | Dr Jane Fitch | j.fitch@communityhealthpartnerships.co.uk |
| North West | Jeanette Leach | j.leach@communityhealthpartnerships.co.uk |
| South and East | Simon Waters |
Read more Insights from CHP
Read more about our insights on core asset optimisation, place-based care and how CHP supports sustainable NHS infrastructure to enable care for patients closer to home in their local neighbourhoods.
