The NHS Shared Business Services Framework featured in The Times this month is aFramework we’ve been active on since 2017, having been awarded numerous contracts in that time.
The article highlighted why Ministers are favouring prefabricated methods of construction “hoping to spend a significant chunk of a £3.5 billion infrastructure fund on ready-made hospitals that speed up construction and standardise NHS buildings.”
“With conventional buildings taking the best part of a decade to complete, ministers say that the NHS does not need ‘bespoke’ designs when off-the-shelf can be quicker and cheaper.”
We’ve long been vocal about the benefits of modular design and now it looks like the UK Government is realising them too – Stephen Barclay, the health minister in charge of finance and procurement told The Times: “Modular design brings economies of scale, as the more units you have the cheaper they become.” He added that such buildings can be rolled out quicker, giving “a huge performance opportunity for the NHS”.
Mr Barclay told The Times that he was keen to encourage prefab companies to work with the health service: “We’re looking actively at it because all too often the NHS has built bespoke buildings. There is scope for greater consistency, which is good for staff, considering where staff move and allows us to roll out buildings in a quicker way and to a very high quality”.
The article went on to highlight the cost savings standardised buildings can yield which according to Nathan Hodgson of NHS Shared Business Services come in at around “10 to 20 per cent”.
Mr Hodgson went on to tell The Times that, “…prefab buildings typically take half the time of traditional construction, with wards functioning within six months.”
To read the article in full via The Times online click here
