Always in the news

As I write this1 we are awaiting the announcement of the date for the General Election (almost certainly 6th May and if not then I for one want to know how Gordon Brown can justify the waste of our money by forcing a second set of election expense when the local council elections are already taking place in the correct time frame). Much of what we are currently looking at in healthcare facilities management will be affected to some degree or other by the outcome of that election. But it does look as if it is only the degree that will be affected and not the overall direction; that seems to have been determined by the government’s reaction to the banking crisis and the recession.

Reallocation, reallocation
Already this week, and it is only Tuesday lunchtime, we have heard that in order to save money, the battalions based in Germany, due to relocate to Staffordshire and Shropshire, will now not be doing so. Their repatriation is on hold as the funds to do so are needed elsewhere. Politicians on our local radio are asking how it is less expensive to keep troops abroad than at home. I don’t know but without facts I find it hard to fault their logic. It must be better for Britain to have British Troops and their families spending Sterling in British towns than in Germany. Or is this too simplistic a view?
    
And how is this relevant to healthcare facilities? An influx of several thousand MOD staff with their families will create a demand on local healthcare provision and this needs to be planned for. The PCTs in the areas concerned will already have been looking at the increase in demand on GP and other Primary Care services, and the facilities that support these need to be in place or at the very least planned for. Additionally such an influx of healthy and active young men and women will reasonably increase demands on the local A&E and Maternity Services at the very least. Is there current capacity or is an expansion required? All this will have had to be looked at and now with the troop movement postponed any planning or actual construction will need to be put on ice too.
    
At the same time the TV news was also reporting on the battle one man had after spending £100,000 of his own money in America for Proton Treatment for a spinal tumour.2 The outcome of his battle was a win for patients who are now being shipped abroad for this treatment on the NHS and, the report says, we may have a facility for this kind of treatment in the UK in 2015. How can this be cost effective and timely management of our health service provision? Surely as the technology is proven and available for use in other countries we should have been planning for its implementation alongside some of the developments that are just coming on line?
    
The third news item that caught my eye was a local newspaper report on NHS car parking3 and highlighted three hospitals that made a £2M surplus on their car parking provision. Again, without the facts (and all the newspaper reported was this headline figure as the rounded up sum of the surpluses from the three hospitals) it is difficult to comment. Important information would be:

• the number of charged for spaces
• average charge levied
• percentage occupancy of spaces at peak periods
• number of supported or complimentary tickets
• cost of car park maintenance
• cost of security and attendants
• number of thefts of or from vehicles
• if the surplus went to the NHS or commercial contractor

But of course all of this gets in the way of a “good story”.

Best practice in parking
As a regular user of car parks at hospitals all over the country I am only too conscious of the need to control and regulate use and so I was thrilled a while back when we were invited to support the launch of a new Car Parking Charter for Hospital Car Parks. Just last month the British Parking Association (BPA) launched its Charter for Hospital Parking. In this, supported by both the NHS Confederation and the Healthcare Facilities Consortium, as the organisations representing the NHS and Healthcare Facilities Management Teams, the BPA lays out a set of protocols to strike the right balance between being fair to patients, visitors and staff and making sure that parking facilities are managed effectively for the good of everyone.
    
Parking charges are a pain but why should hospitals near city and town centres provide free car parking for commuters funded by NHS money that should be providing healthcare? In Scotland, where parking on all but three hospital sites is free, the Fire Service recently had to be called in to remove illegally parked cars from the helipad area so an Air Ambulance could land. Clearly this sort of situation cannot be allowed to put lives in danger.
    
Within the HFC we have long supported and propagated the use of Best Practice and we are pleased to add our support to this Charter as a Good Practice Guide. Although written with the English NHS Trusts in mind, because of the no charge situation in Scotland and Wales, we see the Charter as being applicable to all healthcare premises throughout the UK. The important thing is that this is a positive step towards raising standards and we encourage all healthcare provider organisations and their parking contractors to sign up.
    
BPA had obviously consulted amongst their members and service users and on 23 February the English Department of Health closed its own public consultation on hospital parking. At the time of writing no response to the consultation had been posted but we have received acknowledgment of the response we submitted on behalf of our members and look forward to seeing the outcome provide of course that it does not disappear in the cloud of election fever.

Climate change
Looking at other issues it was very interesting to hear David Pancheon talking at a recent NHS Confederation forum on Climate Change. He noted that it was time to move from aspirational objectives to promoting actual case studies and Trevor Payne, director of Estates at UCLH, cited their “tube map” of delivery routes as such an example.
    
By working collaboratively they have been able to significantly reduce the number of large lorry deliveries to hospital premises in Central London. Being able to highlight real success stories that prove environmental sustainability whilst showing real world cost and process savings has to be a meaningful step forward.

Now let’s wait till May and see which colour of political flag is waved over it!

Notes:
1. Article written on Tuesday 16 March 2010
2. BBC Midlands Today Monday 15 March 2010
3. Express & Star Wolverhampton City Edition Monday 15 March