Re-thinking Space

Nightingale help Royal United Hospital Bath develop their estates strategy

Shrinking capital budgets, under-utilisation of space, poor building condition and rising maintenance costs, are just some of the issues facing NHS Estates Directors. This combined with confusion over NHS reform and the desire to achieve Foundation Trust status– is putting further pressure on Trust’s to have a robust Estates Strategy in place. Patient wellbeing is a priority, but this goes hand-in-hand with the quality of the buildings that deliver that care.

The Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust was facing similar challenges. It needed an Estates Strategy so that it could continue to deliver the excellent level of general acute and emergency care to a population of around 500,000 in Bath and the surrounding areas. With over 30 years experience in healthcare design and planning, Nightingale Associates stepped in to help the trust develop a ten year vision for their Estate.

Getting the right people around the table in a ‘visioning workshop’, was the first step in this process. Director of Estates and Facilities, Howard Jones was joined by key stakeholders from the Trust and experts from Nightingale Associates.

Denise Medcraff and Martin Wickes from Nightingale’s Brighton studio had built a good relationship with Howard Jones when he was the Director of Facilities at East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. When Mr. Jones moved to become the Director of Estates and Facilities at the Royal United Hospital Bath in 2008, the Brighton office kept in touch.

“During our first visit Mr. Jones suggested that the Bath site badly needed some strategic level thinking.” Martin said.

“To help them we offered to hold a workshop with the Trust to discuss the future of the Estate and the big issues currently confronting them. Attendance at the workshop was extremely good. On our side it included our founder Mike Nightingale and frameworks director John Knape, whilst the Trust attendees included the chief executive, Mr. Jones and a number of other key clinical directors.”

The workshop led to Nightingale’s first commission to carry out an estates analysis. This was quickly followed by a second piece of work to compile a strategy document that would outline a 10 year development programme, which would also support the hospital becoming a Foundation Trust.

“Rationalising and reorganising a Trust’s Estate to add value is now more important than ever, especially considering the pervading uncertainty brought about by the Coalition's radical changes to the health service. I remember the last shake-up in the 1990s and have lost count of the number of Development Control Plans we did then! We are keen to bring all of our experience and expertise to other Trusts so that they can ensure that investment is made in the right areas.”
Mike Nightingale, Founder, Nightingale Associates

Nightingale has subsequently won a P21+ project for the first major piece of work which is the re-provision of the existing Mortuary and Pathology laboratories.

Howard Jones, Director of Estates, Royal United Hospital Bath said: “I have known the Nightingale Brighton office for almost 10 years and worked with them on some great projects in East Kent. They are always fun to work with and have huge NHS healthcare experience, which is essential when working on a new site master plan. I look forward to a new partnership, delivering more high quality buildings at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.”

St Ann's wins planning approval

Plans to extend St Ann’s Hospital in Dorset have been approved by the Borough of Poole council. The £35 million scheme will provide four new wards and refurbish an existing ward block to create single room accommodation. Set within the grounds of an existing Grade11 listed sanatorium building, the new scheme will protect the heritage of the site while providing 21st century mental health accommodation.

Comedienne Ruby Wax was among the people who liked the plans. She said: “Why should you have to suffer because of mental illness? Stop the stigma and improve the facilities at St Ann’s Hospital.”

Refurbishment at Rotherham

A refurbishment project at Rotherham Hospital as part of a Kier led supply chain was our first project to be won through the new ProCure21+ framework. Since then we have been commissioned to do four more projects with different Trusts. More

Abstract

Glasgow Starts on Site

Work on the New South Glasgow Hospital has started on site. The £842 million ‘super hospital’ is one of the UK’s largest hospitals ever commissioned and includes 1,109 single en-suite bedrooms. More

The Turf is cut for Cardiff Uni's new research HQ

The flagship scientific research building for Cardiff University’s new Maindy Park campus has started on site. The turf was cut for the new ‘Hadyn Ellis Building’ at an official ceremony. The building features state-of-the-art laboratories, a lecture theatre, a post-graduate research centre and a large public exhibition space.

Peterborough City Hospital on film

Peterborough City Hospital opened to the public at the end of last year. To find out more about the planning of the design and feedback from patients and staff, check out the films.

Constructing Excellence in Wales

The Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan community hospital in Ebbw Vale has been shortlisted for a Constructing Excellence in Wales award for ‘Project of the Year’. Winners will be announced on the 14th July 2011.

Disclosed

Are you getting the best value from your Estate?

Nightingale has:
+ Generated over 40 NHS Development Control Plans (DCPs)
+ Delivered over 200 healthcare refurbishment schemes
+ Designed more than 150 new build projects
+ Partnered with over 130 NHS Trusts
+ Contributed to Healthcare Building Notes (HBN)
+ Participated in the NHS NEAT / BREEAM sustainability guidance

Connect with Nightingale Associates

Twitter

Blog

LinkedIn

Contact Us

RSS Feed

Events

A Night to
Remember

Nightingale celebrated its 21st Birthday with a client party held in one of London’s most exclusive venues; the Skylon at the Royal Festival Hall. Coinciding with the 60th anniversary Festival of Britain, the party entitled ‘Past, Present, Future’, was a celebration of their work, but also gave a taste of things to come as part of IBI Group.

7th Laborrunde-Conference, Berlin

Jeannine Baker-Wilson from Nightingale’s Harwell studio attended the 7th Laborrunde Conference in Berlin. Laborrunde is a knowledge exchange platform that brings together various experts involved in the creation of laboratory environments.
Read More

BIM'll Fix It, Said Business School, Oxford

Baffled about BIM? Nightingale and IBI presented at a Constructing Excellence seminar exploring the issues surrounding BIM: from the benefits of adopting an integrated approach, to project case studies and tips on implementation.

THiNK

THiNK @
The Bartlett

Masters Students at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture attended a THiNK lecture led by guest speaker, Mike Nightingale. Students were given a taste of Nightingale innovations and the evidence-based research that goes into our projects, from the Cruciform Ward to the Barn Theatre.

Cruciform Ward is ticking the boxes

A Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the new Cruciform wards has been carried out at Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey. The results found that 90% of the patients questioned felt there was enough personal space around their beds and 80% of the nurses preferred the new layout to the traditional four bed bay.

Shipping container competition sparks creative thinking

Staff took part in a cross-studio design completion for Advance Aid, a charitable initiative that provides strategic disaster relief in Africa. The brief asked the teams to design medical support facilities for disaster stricken countries using 40ft shipping containers.