As the healthcare sector enters a new era of construction, contract management is the key enabler of collaboration, risk control, sustainability and certainty across large-scale programmes. Hospitals are far more than bricks and mortar or steel structures — they are critical clinical ecosystems, combining life-critical infrastructure with architecture that must remain agile, future-proofed, and compliant

Wales Regional Conference, Exhibition and Awards Dinner 2026 The annual Wales Regional Conference, Exhibition and Gala Awards Dinner will take place on 6/7 May 2026 in partnership with NHS Wales, Shared Services Partnership, and Specialist Estate Services. The Conference and Exhibition are being held at the International Conference Centre at (ICC) Coldra Woods, Newport, South Wales,

At Healthcare Estates 2025, Tony Sinden, enterprise account manager – Northern Europe at Honeywell, interviewed Simon Boundy, head of healthcare, and architectural assistant Jakub Raspl, both of Stride Treglown Architects, winners of the 2025 Healthcare Estates Refurbishment Project Of The Year Award. They discussed the methodology behind – and challenges presented by – an extensive

Hexham General Hospital is part of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, serving a dispersed rural population. Like many UK hospitals, it had ageing electrical infrastructure, an increasing demand on electrical load, and legacy cabling that was not designed to cope with the growing number of electrical devices used in surgery, diagnostics, and patient treatment. However,

The government’s New Hospitals Programme aims to deliver new hospital buildings without relying on a PFI-style model, but where is the money going to come from, and how can it deliver those new facilities at the pace that is now required? Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has already confirmed that the investment for 250

The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) investigation report, Patient care in temporary care environments, published on
8 January 2026, confirms that so-called corridor care and the use of temporary escalation spaces are no longer confined to winter pressures but have become a year-round reality for some NHS Trusts. The investigation examines patient safety risks associated

Across the NHS and wider public sector, sustainability is no longer a fringe concern. Boards sign off Green Plans, carbon targets are embedded into national policy, and estates teams are under increasing pressure to decarbonise ageing infrastructure while keeping hospitals operational around the clock. And yet, for all the ambition, many sustainability and Net Zero

According to our recent research, more than 2,000 premises — including NHS hospitals — are failing fire inspections in a year, specifically because of inadequate emergency lighting. Indeed, emergency lighting is vital in all non-residential premises but critical buildings such as care homes or hospitals, where potentially hundreds of patients, including those who are immobile,

Public sector organisations already face significant decarbonisation requirements. The NHS has committed to achieving Net Zero for the emissions it directly controls by 2040, with an ambition of an 80 per cent reduction between 2028 and 2032. For estates teams managing ageing healthcare facilities, improving the performance and lifespan of key building elements such as

In 2026, the landscape of regulatory compliance has evolved beyond the theoretical; it now transcends further towards practical-based certification. For modern healthcare engineering, professional excellence requires bridging the widening gap between a conceptual knowledge of the HTM (Healthcare Technical Memoranda) and the technical dexterity to execute essential ongoing engineering operations in live environments. While theoretical

With sustainability and energy efficiency, not to mention decarbonisation, increasingly taking priority during building design, MEP engineers and architects are coming into conflict as part of an ever-changing air quality landscape. Nowhere is this better highlighted than in the increasing need for louvres to be designed and incorporated into buildings, especially in applications where plant

Hannah Lewis Jones: So Xav, you had a good night last night, smashing it out of the park over here. Xav Roberts: We were lucky enough to pick up two awards, best practice and best projects as well, very pleased. Fantastic. And you won New Build Project of the Year. It’s quite nice to see

We need to meet this ambition while ensuring government Net Zero and sustainability criteria is taken into account. By combining rapid, cost-effective offsite construction with built-in flexibility, thoughtful design and supporting Net Zero through construction, materials and integrated renewables, modular will enable the government to deliver high-quality, modern and sustainable facilities at pace across the

The NHS faces increasing pressures in its goals of providing effective and efficient patient care due to a combination of challenges that directly impact patient flow and hospital operations. The ageing population has significantly increased demand for healthcare services. The number of over 65-year-olds have significantly increased in the last decade, resulting in more frequent

HEJ: You started out in commercial real estate — what drew you into the NHS estate, and how different has the experience been compared to the private sector? What keeps you motivated? Chris King: My first career was in recruitment, and I was doing recruitment for a property recruitment company, and I just absolutely loved