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.