An independent review into how the NHS can make the best use of its estate to support NHS England’s Five Year Forward View has been published by government. The review highlights the opportunities available to support sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) and optimise the use of NHS land and buildings.
The report points to the “general consensus … that the current NHS capital investment is insufficient to fund transformation and maintain the current estate“ and calls for the NHS, through the STP process to “rapidly develop robust capital plans which are aligned with clinical strategies, maximise value for money (including land sales) and address backlog maintenance. Government should support these plans by providing capital, but only where a strong case has been made.”
In welcoming the review findings, the government notes that it is “already acting on some of the recommendations by:
- creating a new NHS property body
- making a £325 million capital investment over the next 3 years to develop local STPs – as announced in this year’s Budget
- developing an incentive scheme to guarantee that proceeds of sales are available for reinvestment”
It further notes that it will consider a further multi-year capital programme in the autumn and will respond to the broader recommendations in due course
The full report can be found here.