In June, the RCP submitted a response to the 2021 Wolfson Economics Prize on how new hospitals should be designed and planned. This report is an adapted version of that submission aimed at everyone involved in hospital design.
The design and planning of new hospitals is a topical subject as government has committed to building 40 new hospitals in the UK by 2030. In July 2021 it announced the selection process for the first eight of these hospitals.
Our report draws on a range of resources produced by the RCP and the wider health sector - including our 2017 Delivering the future hospital report - as well as survey and qualitative data from our members and fellows. It focuses on how to:
- design hospital services around the needs of patients rather than the ‘system’
- ensure that patients receive better, quicker services from hospitals
- improve staff wellbeing in hospitals to enable better workforce retention and delivery of services.
The report highlights ways of improving patient pathways that should be built into the functioning of new hospitals, such as continuing to reform outpatients and conducting better ward rounds. It outlines physical changes that are needed, such as co-locating acute admission units. And it points to ways of improving staff wellbeing, including tackling workforce shortages so staff are less stressed.
We hope our report is useful for any physicians whose trust may be considering bidding for funding to build a new hospital. We also anticipate it being helpful for DHSC officials and managers within NHS trusts supporting the design and planning of new hospitals.