Chris Smith, Head of Kajima Community shares his insight with Hospital Hub…
For many years, alarm bells have sounded over the squeeze on NHS budgets, as demand for its services rise. NHS England bosses recently warned that hospital patient safety is at risk because of a £4bn cut to capital funding. At the same time, the NHS has been tasked with a second pressure: finding £22bn of efficiency savings by 2020.
The health service faces an enormous challenge in delivering these savings, but the means to do so could be unlocked by its property. The NHS remains one of the largest property owners in the UK, boasting an estate in England that totals some 6.9m hectares. So far there has been little attention focused on how this huge resource could help to improve efficiency, drive cost savings, and ultimately improve patient outcomes, but new technologies are making its maximisation more viable.
Empty space – a fresh revenue stream
Across the healthcare sector many valuable property assets are underused, with meeting rooms, communal spaces and entire buildings sitting empty for much of the time. Technology is increasingly able to not only map space that is underutilised, but also ensure that it is used more effectively through the use of lettings software.
At Kajima Community, we are working with a number of healthcare organisations, among them Wessex Health Network, to help manage their property estate more efficiently through the leasing of empty space. Renting out property assets in this way can help lessen the pressure on NHS Trusts, providing a fresh income stream that can help drive efficiency savings or be reinvested in frontline care. When used in the education sector, Kajima Community found this process enabled schools to generate income at an average of £40,000 a year.
Improving outcomes for patients
Another advantage of the increasing use of technology is that healthcare trusts are better able to cope with the increasing demands of an ageing population. As NHS Trusts learn to maximise the use of their property, technological platforms will enable them to respond in real time to increases in demand for certain services or treatments and provide suitable accommodation according to service needs.
It also means that patients can be treated closer to home. This is of particular relevance to those suffering from mental health conditions. Many NHS Trusts have found it difficult within the current funding environment to provide services to meet the increasing demand for mental health services, forcing some people to travel long distances to find the support they need. Longer distances can make it harder for friends, family and local clinicians to visit which can affect a person’s recovery, leading to them having to stay in care longer and increase expenditure which could otherwise be invested into community services.
While the NHS is undoubtedly facing funding difficulties, it is also clear the properties it owns continue to provide it with a major resource which, if used in the right way and with the right technology, could lead to improvements in services, fresh revenue streams and better patient outcomes. As technology improves this will allow NHS Trusts to provide at least some of the efficiency savings currently being demanded while also providing the services communities want and need.
Kajima Community in action
Sue Crabb, Clinic Manager at Wessex Health Network said:“As a multi-functioning clinic, we recognise the importance of maximising the use of our venue to help provide a healthcare service for patients of all ages within the community.
BookingsPlus, Kajima Community’s online lettings platform is accessible for any of our therapists to use at any time of the day, which allows them to readily see what is available to accommodate their patients in real-time. Crucially, it is a secure software that means patient confidentiality is respected and maintained.”
