Investing in hospitals of the future

Overview

This book is one of the first to offer a systematic treatment of the decision to invest in the health care estate (wider than hospitals alone, but this is a useful abbreviation). It is in some senses an interim report, attempting to understand the current state of evidence of what works, and to bring that evidence to bear for decision-makers. A sister volume, to be published in the Observatory Studies Series, reviews some topical case studies. Th is evidence – and more – has been subject to a searching examination. Th ere are some cross-cutting themes: the importance of systematic planning; the increasing role of markets as a factor contributing to action but, even without that, an awareness of the financial and other resource flows entrained in the hospital; the human capital aspects of the workforce, which spends its whole working life – rather than just the few days of a typical patient – within the hospital walls; along with sustainability. It should not be neglected that hospitals are often the biggest single energy consumers, and therefore emitters of carbon, in a city