The Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) has published a comprehensive report highlighting the critical investment challenges and potential solutions for the NHS estate.  ‘Exploring challenges and solutions for the NHS estate’ is based on a roundtable discussion with NHS finance and estates professionals, including CHP’s CFO Nafees Arif, who provided insights from the NHS LIFT estate.   

The report emphasises the need for strategic, long-term planning and collaboration to address the state of the existing NHS infrastructure. It also recognises capital constraints and identifies potential solutions the new Government could explore to support their mission to build an NHS fit for the future. 

The CIPFA report ‘chimes’ with the findings on capital and NHS estates in Lord Darzi’s report published earlier this month.  

The key findings from the CIPFA report include: 

• Overall levels of capital in the NHS should be considered and better aligned with policy priorities at local and national level. This should be reflected in how capital is allocated 

• Long-term strategic infrastructure planning needs to be matched with a multi-year capital settlement.  

• New models of investment should be explored including those involving public and private sector partners.  

• Rationalisation and optimisation of the existing estate is crucial, both within the NHS and across the wider public sector 

Although capital investment and funding challenges cannot be remedied overnight, a solution for the here and now is to better utilise existing good quality community-based infrastructure to support the transformation of the NHS and drive productivity. 

CHP manages over 300 LIFT assets which are modern healthcare facilities designed to support the integration of health and care in local communities.  Through collaboratively working with ICBs and NHS partners we believe more intensive use of these core assets will drive up productivity and support the shift of care into communities.