Digital Estates Management for NHS Trusts

The NHS Estate, encompassing hospitals, clinics, and administrative buildings, holds a crucial position in healthcare service provision. Constantly evolving, it must adjust to shifting spatial and service requirements of hospitals. This perpetual transition necessitates adaptations to accommodate changes in healthcare delivery models, including space reconfiguration, creation of new healthcare facilities, and the integration of digital advancements. These factors create challenges regarding the decision making associated with the operational and estate management of an NHS estate. Understanding these factors and their interconnectivity is crucial for creating a system which can enable effective decision making for the Trust. The Chief Executive, the Finance Director, the Director of Estates, and all other parties who must jointly make complex, interconnected decisions will benefit from enhanced performance leading to transformational decision making.

In our latest publication we explain how the digitisation of operational and estates data can automate the arduous work required by the senior team and ensure they have robust information for scenario planning. The speed with which this thinking can be carried out is already impressive and will continue to improve as the technology and associated databases grow.

NHS Trusts can digitise their estate using OPAL, a powerful digital assistant that enables effective estate management for NHS Trusts through optimising the use and development of the physical assets of NHS Trusts, combined with capital and operational costs. It provides a comprehensive view of the NHS estate portfolio, allowing for data-driven decision making and scenario testing. With OPAL, NHS Trusts can optimise their estate assets, improve space utilisation, implement energy efficiency measures, effectively manage backlog maintenance, reduce costs, invest in sustainable practices, use technology and data analytics, and create partnerships and collaborations.