Prioritising Patient Care Amid Ageing Hospitals with Hospital Maintenance Services

Further delays to vital NHS hospital re-builds are creating uncertainty amongst NHS estate teams and putting high-quality patient care at risk. As a dedicated partner to the NHS for its hard FM services, Artic Building Services is seeing the detrimental impact that delays to essential building repairs is having first hand. With some NHS hospitals across England having to wait until at least 2032 for construction to begin, working with expert maintenance teams that understand the restraints that NHS hospitals are facing is now more important than ever. Healthcare facilities management teams are having to continuously adapt their services to support the NHS estate teams and their increasingly difficult to manage infrastructure.

What is the NHS Aging Infrastructure?

The NHS infrastructure remains in crisis with insufficient budget invested in the long-term to build new hospitals, install and maintain equipment, and book in overdue repairs. With some of the hospitals being over 100 years old, these buildings have been needing essential repairs for some time now, with more unsafe incidents occurring because of building faults. The Health Foundation research found that the NHS trusts have seen a “21% reduction in capital funding” leading to an over-reliance on aging equipment and infrastructure that is now having consequences for the efficiency and delivery of patient care. These budget constraints have created a severe backlog of maintenance and repairs that has left an unstable environment for clinical staff work in.

Investing in hospital rebuilds is critical to improving safety on site and the delivery of healthcare services. Until it is made a priority, maintaining the equipment in place has become essential in ensuring hospitals remain compliant and able to deliver the vital care patients need in a controlled environment.

How does Healthcare Focused Facilities Management Support the NHS?

By placing urgent priority on maintaining what’s already in place, contracted facilities management has become a core part of many NHS estate teams. According to an independent study conducted by the Liberal Democrat party, because of the poor conditions in NHS buildings, a total of 600 days clinical time[1] was lost in 2023/2024 because of structural failures. Not only was clinical time lost, but The Times found that there are more than 700 dangerous incidents[2] a year which is putting both patients and staff at risk in the NHS. These critical conditions that the NHS currently faces has placed a high level of importance on facilities management working with Estate teams to ensure daily operations of the healthcare sites can continue without disruption.

Artic’s focussed healthcare division works directly with some of the hospitals which are awaiting investment and re-builds, providing contract managers with an up-close insight into its impact. The healthcare team has had to adapt its approach to assist clients in bringing their equipment up to standard across their estates. Crumbling M&E infrastructure means that the Artic healthcare team must be on continuous standby to assist in the event of any incidents regarding equipment that has reached its end of life but has no budget in place to be replaced.

With limited options, estates are having to heavily rely on facilities management teams to make sure the hospitals are safe to operate in and allow the doctors to deliver essential patient care. Understanding the restraints that the NHS is facing, Artic’s healthcare division has shaped it’s mechanical and electrical maintenance services to ensure full site compliance, adapting to the challenges of crumbling infrastructure and tightening budgets.

Adapting Hospital Maintenance Services to Healthcare Needs

Building innovative solutions for healthcare hard FM services has become critical to ensuring a thriving environment for patient care. Artic has been collaborating closely with hospital estate teams since its inception in 1998 and continues to do so through these building delays that are creating uncertainty amongst estate teams.

How We Adapt Our Services to Healthcare Needs:

Working with in partnership with the healthcare industry means that Artic’s solutions are continuously adapting to suit the needs of their dynamic and critical hospital environments. Below are just some of the ways that Artic ensures it is a reliable and essential partner to healthcare estate teams:

• Collaboration: We work hand in hand with the healthcare partners by sitting in on vital committee meetings to align service goals and adapt solutions to fit the latest needs of each hospital.

 

• Extending our Expertise: To support our healthcare partners, we provide collaborative training with the trust for onsite staff and other contractors for plant and H&S matters by hosting toolbox talks and assisting with supplier days.

 

• Value First: With over 20 years of experience working in healthcare environments, Artic takes a collaborative and transparent approach for all solutions to ensure NHS budgets are used to achieve maximum gain across estate assets.

 

• Compliance Focus: Artic takes ownership of all compliance matters with a complete understanding of HTM requirements within healthcare environments.

 

Supporting the NHS with Optimised Hospital Maintenance Services

As the hospital re-build delays leave NHS estate teams in limbo, dynamic maintenance solutions have become an essential part of the facilities management solutions the NHS needs. Artic prioritises collaborating with healthcare estates to ensure adaptable hospital maintenance services that remain able to adjust to the needs of the estate teams and their budget restrictions all whilst optimising the healthcare environment for the delivery of patient care in every building.

Need a facilities management partnership that understands NHS needs?

Contact our experts today and start discussing your estate needs:

[1] https://www.libdems.org.uk/news/article/investment-in-fixing-crumbling-hospitals-falls-by-nearly-40-as-lib-dems-to-force-vote-on-bringing-delayed-projects-forward

[2] https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/nhs-puts-patients-and-staff-at-risk-with-13bn-hospital-repair-bill-qtb0k6xlj