Opportunity knocks

Ken Holmes is in an upbeat mood. He’s just stepped out of the inaugural meeting of CIBSE’s Healthcare Group. “It’s been in an embryonic stage for the last two to three years, but we’re now up and running,” he explains. “We’ve got a groundswell of interest, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of ideas.”

In fact, he admits, too many ideas. The challenge for Holmes and the committee he will chair is to find a focus. “We need to concentrate on the NHS’s priorities and goals and reflect that in the Group’s objectives,” he says. “But the beauty of this Group is that we will have a consensus. The stakeholders around the table represent the different areas of healthcare and it gives the opportunity for our knowledge to be fed back into the healthcare environment.” Ultimately, the aim is to close the design loop by bringing together stakeholders from planning and design through to construction and disposal.

Holmes, who started out as an electrician, has spent the last three decades working in the healthcare sector. Now a public health engineer for the Department of Health (DoH), he believes the formation of the Healthcare Group is perfectly timed. “The environment has changed and I think the time is now right to encourage collaboration,” he observes.

This is partly due to the DoH’s shift in focus following its root-and-branch review. It is becoming more policy orientated, rather than providing hands-on instruction as in the past. With this in mind, Holmes sees a significant role for CIBSE in providing future guidance – particularly as the DoH is to whittle down its 107 design guides to just nine core documents.

“Eventually, a lot of the old documents will be out of date and that is an opportunity for CIBSE,” he explains. “Take legionnaire’s disease. The HSE produces guidance about this, as does CIBSE – and while information like that can be complementary, it can also be confusing, particularly when it gets to the contractual stage. You have different parties quoting different documents, standards or guidance. Hopefully we can square that circle by acting as a focus for different sources.”

We’ve got a groundswell of interest, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of ideas

Holmes also stresses that the government’s 10-year plan – to create 100 hospitals, 20 new-generation diagnostic and treatment centres, 500 one-stop primary care centres and replace or refurbish up to 3000 family doctor’s premises – offers a huge opportunity for services engineers.

“It's always about empowering the consumer. We will see a migration away from acute to primary care,” says Holmes. “There will be a more patient-centred approach, so those people who can be dealt with nearer to home, will be. It’s better for the patient.”

With Primary Care Trusts now vested with commissioning healthcare facilities the other challenge, as for all design engineers, is managing expectations. “Every client has a different set of values and you have to take this into account.”

The next step for the Healthcare Group is a strategic workshop this month. “We’ll use it to pull all our ideas together and inform our direction,” says Holmes. But, while that is still to be decided, there’s one thing he’s very sure of: “We have the enthusiasm and support to carry this new Group forward.”