The need to save money and improve environmental efficiency has led to the creation of new solutions to improve the healthcare estate. Among the most recent contenders are so-called pop-up hospitals. Here, we explores this new trend
Pop-up hospitality suites have been around for a while, and there are even pop-up towns in the US, but it is only recently that pop-up hospitals have begun to appear.
Boxes that fit onto the back of a truck are driven up and down the country, placed in a particular location and then unfolded to create buildings complete with all amenities, from toilets and handwash basins to electricity and lighting systems.
In the healthcare sector this is providing a flexible solution, particularly at peak times such as during the winter months.
Pop-up technology enables healthcare transformation to happen and happen right in the heart of communities
Most commonly, these pop-up hospitals are being used for health screening and patient education, or as additional decant ward space, particularly during refurbishment work.
Others are used as offices, and there are even pop-up operating theatres, which come complete with all medical gases and air handling systems.
Ian Gillespie, chief executive of Vanguard, which supplies pop-up operating theatres to UK health trusts, said: “In the UK we have got some very old existing estate that in some cases it not fit for purpose, but that’s the hand we have been dealt.
“Pop-up technology enables healthcare transformation to happen and happen right in the heart of communities.
“If an area needs to carry out a screening programme, or address waiting lists for elective surgery, they can order a pop-up hospital. It will arrive on the Sunday, be set up and ready to go by Monday and then can be packed away at the end of the week.”
The systems are designed to provide temporary space rather than permanent estate solutions.
“We find hospitals want them while decommissioning buildings or services or to increase capacity,” said Gillespie, “most commonly for between 6-9 months. If a hospital has a need for a permanent facility, then traditional bricks and mortar are probably going to be the best option, but pop-up provides a high-quality, high-tech option to enable healthcare transformation.”
If a hospital has a need for a permanent facility, then traditional bricks and mortar are probably going to be the best option, but pop-up provides a high-quality, high-tech option to enable healthcare transformation
In the future, he predicts, pop-up units will become an integral part of any building project. “I would like to see a health port concept where you have a flexible fixed central building from which pop-up units are attached as and when needed,” he said. “This would provide real sustainability for healthcare services moving forward.”
Examples of deployments in the UK include a pop-up endoscopy unit at Royal Bolton Hospital, which will provide the clinical team with additional capacity as a result of high demand for colonoscopy and gastroscopy procedures.
Vanguard has also supplied an interim special care baby unit and neonatal intensive care unit at St Mary’s Maternity Hospital in Poole, Dorset; and a temporary ophthalmic unit at St John’s Hospital in Edinburgh.
