Estates and facilities red tape to be relaxed under NHS reforms
THE bureaucracy surrounding estates and facilities management is likely to be relaxed as part of the reforms of the NHS, it has been claimed.
The Department of Health has said it will no longer be putting together guidance such as Healthcare Building Notes (HBNs) to steer estates and facilities developments and will instead rely on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to set relevant standards.
Commenting on the news, Paul Kingsmore, president of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM), told delegates at last week’s Healthcare Infrastructure 2011 conference: “I can’t see under the new system there will be the same level of guidance that we have now. I don’t think there will be HBNs on things like door handles and coat hooks. We are big enough and old enough to look at these things ourselves. Standards moving forward, I think, will be much more about outcomes.
“In the future the CQC will set estates standards and will look at every organisation to see how they meet those.”
A main consideration will be the quality of the patient environment, he added, in particular key indicators such as same-sex accommodation, safety, and privacy and dignity.
“There is very little in the NHS white paper about buildings, but there is a lot about patient choice and the patient experience,” he said. “And estates and facilities do have an impact on clinical outcomes, such as lighting and ventilation. This will be increasingly important moving forward.”