Nightingale speaks on hospital planning
flexibility in Milan
18 February 2010
Mike Nightingale represented Nightingale Associates and the International Academy for Design and Health at the International Conference on Hospital Planning Flexibility staged by the University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano) on 5th February 2010.
Mike spoke on future flexibility being an integral part of sustainable design solutions created to suit particular sites. His paper featured a diverse range of Nightingale Associates projects including Porthmadog Community Hospital in Wales, Sunyani Hospital in Ghana and the Barn Theatre at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool.
He set these case studies in the context of an historical analysis of flexible hospital planning starting with the work of Florence Nightingale up to the current day. He ended by citing two examples of scientific innovation relevant to future flexibility. Firstly, the advent of ‘Predictive Medicine’ made possible by the mapping of the human genome, and secondly, a key breakthrough recently made by the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge. The complete genetic codes of two human cancers have been mapped for the first time. The move could herald a medical revolution in which every tumour can be targeted with personalised therapy.
Mike's talk included Nucleus and Harness designs
It is predicted that personalised drug treatments designed to attack individual tumour cells will be possible within 10-20 years. This could make Radiotherapy bunkers redundant, with profound consequences on future flexibility in hospital design. This was reported in the Times in December 2009 and commented on by Mike the following day.
Conceptual sketch of the Bed Pod
He ended his talk with an update on the exciting work being led by Richard Mazuch on the design of Bed Pods made possible by Nightingale Associates winning a grant of £25,000 from the Design Council. Most health services around the world are aspiring to between 80-100% single rooms in their facilities. However over 90% of patients are currently housed in multi-bed wards. The possibility to retrofit prefabricated Bed Pods, suitable for single or multi-bed spaces, offering patients many of the advantages of single rooms has a profoundly positive effect on the future proofing of hospitals.
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