As the largest NHS trust in the country, efficiently managing and maintaining the buildings on Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s 10 hospital sites is a huge challenge. One of those sites, the North Manchester General Hospital, is part of the first phase of the New Hospital Programme (NHP) which will see 70% of the site rebuilt or refurbished. The project comprises 70,000m² of new build and 27,000m² refurbishment with the goal that this will be an intelligent, digitally enabled hospital with technology ranging from sophisticated building management systems to electronic patient records.

The NHP also requires trusts to build digital twins to operate their new buildings more effectively. Given this, and the fact that the new hospital will only make up 20% of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s (MFT) total estate, a couple of years ago the trust decided to develop a digital twin to help it manage the existing estate more efficiently and integrate the new hospital into this twin once this is operational.