Getting our houses in order – our Estates and Infrastructure Strategy
The NHS in south east London runs services from nearly 450 different properties. They range from small community facilities to some of the largest hospitals in the capital. Most of them are over 40 years old, and the needs of a modern healthcare service are changing rapidly.
Maintaining and modernising our estate is a huge challenge. It is important that we make sure we get the best usage from the properties we work from, and keep them well maintained for our patients and staff. It’s also important that we work to reduce our carbon footprint, and make sure that our estate is properly set up to support the changing needs of a modern healthcare system.
Healthcare infrastructure is a vital part of the future delivery of health services. We can’t make real progress if our estate is not fit for purpose. So having a co-ordinated and shared understanding of what priorities and developments look like, is vital at all levels of the health system.
South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB) is one of the first ICBs to publish an Estates and Infrastructure Strategy.
Our strategy is now complete. Finalising it has been a huge partnership effort that has required significant input and support from across our integrated care system including, members of the local estates forums, Borough leads, finance, digital, NHS provider estates leads, regional estates teams and our landlords.
Our strategy lays out our plans for a modern, adaptable estate, underpinned by three key ambitions:
- Stronger, safer, and greener buildings: buildings that are safe, adaptable and support the NHS to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
- Better and smarter infrastructure: supporting multi-disciplinary collaboration, enabled by technology.
- A fairer allocation of investment and more efficient use of resources: provide a levelled-up estates investment plan that tackles health inequalities.
How will we achieve this? Four pillars support these ambitions:
- Strong leadership: strong leadership at all levels
- People and capability: a capable and effective workforce
- Data-driven decisions: using evidence to support estate planning
- Strategic investment: identifying clear capital and revenue priorities enabling the investment in the right place
You can read a summary of our strategy here.
We will be publishing regular updates on our work in the South East London ICS monthly newsletter – sign up here.
And you can join us on our journey. As a member of the public, you can take part in future consultation exercises, and keep track of our plans. We will publish updates on our estates page.
For more information, see our Estates page.