The national design for “new hospitals” will be reduced in size, HSJ understands, amid concerns over “unnecessary” space and cost.
The New Hospitals Programme is expected to make changes to the “Hospital 2.0” standardised design that schemes will be expected to follow.
Changes to the national design are likely to include reduced sizes for rooms and corridor areas as part of ongoing design development. It is also understood these changes will reduce costs.
The changes come amid trusts involved in the New Hospitals Programme raising concerns about the scale of the Hospital 2.0 template after the design was updated in May. They said the update would drive up the potential footprint and cost of their schemes, with the size of wards commonly cited as an issue.
The government did not comment on the expected downscaling of Hospital 2.0, but said designs continue to be “developed and refined”.
NHP has previously claimed the standardised approach to building hospitals – including design and modern methods of construction – will drive down costs and speed up delivery.
Concerns
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, which is aiming to replace Leeds General Infirmary in a £1bn project, estimated that the May update to the Hospital 2.0 design pushed its costs up by more than £60m. This was up from an estimated £25m increase the trust was predicting before the updated design was released.
A report to the July trust board said it was likely the full application of the design would cause “a risk of clinical and operational efficiency being reduced”.
Other directors involved in “new hospital” projects said the latest designs increased pressure on budgets.
One source said: “There’s a lot in there driving costs up. At the time where we suspect we will be told to deliver things more cheaply.”
They cited the floor area of standard ward designs and net-zero regulations as examples.
Another director from a scheme said on the May release: “There is a lot of push back that it adds unnecessary space and cost, is inflexible and doesn’t address key co-ordination issues with engineering.”
Hospital 2.0
The entire New Hospitals Programme is now under review by the new Labour government to come up with a “realistic” and “costed” timeline.
NHP had been expected to finalise Hospital 2.0 in May this year, but the designs are still being updated.
New schemes built on the Hospital 2.0 designs could still end up with a bigger footprint than current hospital builds, even with the expected downscaling.
The requirement that all wards must have single rooms, recent net zero and fire regulations, and engineering requirements are also understood to be driving up space and costs.
Meanwhile, the final funding envelopes for NHP projects are still unclear. NHP was understood to be seeking £4bn more than earmarked last year, which could have been translated into increased individual allocations. But a decision on this is on hold, amid the government review.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We must reset the New Hospital Programme to put it on a sustainable footing, following persistent delays and cost overruns.”
Source: HSJ
Date: 12 August