In this article, Mark Rooney, rental divisional director at Premier Modular, discusses the current healthcare challenges, exploring how temporary modular units can support NHS trusts in balancing and meeting demands – both now and in the future
The NHS is being pulled in many different directions, creating a perfect storm compromising:
And these problems serve to exacerbate and compound one another, causing the NHS to be continuously stretched, potentially to breaking point.
The healthcare demand cycle
Once winter pressures have been minimised, healthcare trusts have to move on to coping with the next set of demands and all this restricts how well the NHS can service elective medical needs.
As soon as the service has recovered from last winter’s bottlenecks, then we’re into summer and time to focus on preparing for winter again.
Year on year, the NHS is subjected to a continuous cycle of varying healthcare demands – some more urgent than others.
And this endless lurching from crisis to crisis, inhibits the NHS’s ability to plan ahead and leads to trusts battling with issues, such as outpatient capacity, to support intense seasonal needs.
Some peaks in demands are perennial, such as flu cases.
But the NHS cannot reliably predict how well it will cope with a particular hiatus because government input and other factors vary so wildly across the years.
This endless lurching from crisis to crisis, inhibits the NHS’s ability to plan ahead and leads to trusts battling with issues, such as outpatient capacity, to support intense seasonal needs
As all healthcare services are interlinked, it’s key to relieve each part of the health service to prevent it clogging up another stage. For example, care homes being full so hospitals cannot discharge those patients in need of care.
The pace at which relief arrives is almost as important as the shape the relief takes because it enables the NHS to stay a step ahead.
Plans to lighten the load on the NHS are often last minute and precariously balanced between competing demands/stakeholders with fixed income targets so trusts need their building projects to be delivered and installed quickly.
Offsite modular units provide space at pace
The continuous cycle of unpredictable peaks in service demand including outpatient and social care drives the need for additional space.
And, built in half the time it would take by traditional bricks and mortar, a modular building operates just as efficiently and can accommodate large patient numbers within a few weeks, rather than months.
Once installed, a modular solution’s units can be reconfigured - enlarged, widened, and stacked – to adapt to changes of use or volume of patients.
To relieve service pressure and capacity, trusts can also rent modular buildings for as long, or as little, as needed, altering and expanding them to meet current demands and facility needs.
Built in half the time it would take by traditional bricks and mortar, a modular building operates just as efficiently and can accommodate large patient numbers within a few weeks, rather than months
For example, due to the NHS’ maintenance backlog, trusts may need to start using decant facilities.
Modular units are reconfigurable, allowing personnel to decant different departments in and out and minimising the pressures faced through different services at different times.
Flexibility
To account for the needs and pressures that trusts are facing, bespoke solutions that offer full flexibility can be essential to solving these demands.
If you need a turnkey solution, this can cover:
However, if you prefer a flexible solution, with just one or a few of the above options, for example, temporary solutions can offer modular frames, which can be fitted out by end users.By working in collaboration with key healthcare stakeholders who are looking to put together particular business cases, processes can be altered to deliver a bespoke, future-proofed solution, removing any obstacles that might be present.
Procurement and funding options
Frameworks – for example, NHS Shared Business Services and NHS Commercial Solutions – significantly reduce procurement time and costs.
It’s all about making the whole specification and buying process simple and seamless for trusts who are already stretched.
By following the frameworks, the NHS can rely on getting the best building for their budget.
By actively working alongside knowledgeable modular providers to predict where bottlenecks may occur, a pro-active approach can be taken for emergency response – meeting budgets and capacity needs and, most importantly, caring for patients effectively
If trusts do not have the capital funds for a new facility, they finance the space they need with by renting or leasing with all the flexibility that affords.
This funding can be spread over a number of years to prevent delays, or if hiring a temporary facility, this will be included within opex budgets, rather than capex budgets, enabling trusts to stretch their funding resources further.
By actively working alongside knowledgeable modular providers to predict where bottlenecks may occur, a pro-active approach can be taken for emergency response – meeting budgets and capacity needs and, most importantly, caring for patients effectively.
