Susan Francis is special advisor for health at CABE, leading the thinking on the health programme. Her work includes supporting trusts to deliver good design through design reviews and advice, as well as publishing ‘think pieces’ including Future Health, which encourages the building of well-designed facilities in healthy neighbourhoods for a sustainable future.

Trained as an architect, Susan has worked as an academic developing research and postgraduate training in this specialised field for more than 15 years. She has also published and presented extensively in the UK and abroad.

She said: “It is my strong belief that the best buildings are created by expert architects and informed clients working together. The best examples seem to emerge when the clarity of the strategic brief is sustained through design development into the constructed building and its management.

“As we move into an era in which the holistic connection of health and well-being has to become more sustainable, healthcare buildings are uniquely placed to demonstrate the positive contribution design can made: creating privacy and dignity as a setting for personalised care; making effective and healing places that uplift the spirits of staff, patients and visitors; and having a lighter impact on the wider environment.

“The BBH Awards offer the opportunity to review recently-completed health projects and reward those that are delivering the best.”

 

 

Carole Crane’s 29-year career in healthcare architecture began when she returned to employment in 1981 following the birth of her children. Since then, she has worked on most of the major London hospital developments as well as other leading healthcare centres across the UK, from the multi-million pound PFI projects of the 1990s to the smaller community developments of recent years, spending a large amount of her time on site liaising closely with clinical teams.

This wealth of experience has resulted in her being asked to engage in research into healthcare planning and work with the Department of Health on a review of planning guidance notes.

Carole retired from full-time employment last June and now works as a freelance advisor and reviewer of clinical planning for new build and refurbishment projects in the sector.

She said her passion for healthcare architecture came when she was training, adding: “ “Having worked on a new hospital as an assistant architect I became absorbed in the complexities and intricacies of clinical planning and the ever-changing requirements of the brief. I found that I was proficient when it came to the interpretation of the brief and the provision of an efficient clinical solution to answer the needs of the client and end users.

“It is absolutely necessary to have a thorough understanding of clinical needs and a degree of empathy with the users to enable the design of a facility that will deliver the healthcare service a community deserves. It is also important that the architect and design team can influence the client and inculcate a desire for excellent design that will aid treatment and the delivery of medical procedures.”

Commenting on her role in the BBH Awards, she said: “I hope I can bring my practical experience to bear on the choice of a worthy winner and will assess the technical aspects of the design as well as the efficiency of the clinical planning.

“I shall be looking for an efficient and economic plan which encompasses good design, straightforward layout and wayfinding and opportunities for art and community projects, together with a degree of flair and whimsy which makes the planning and design stand out above other schemes.”

 

Running his own independent consultancy, Jim Chapman is a chartered architect and urban designer with more than 30 years experience across a number of sectors.

Appointed by several public and private sector clients to act as design advisor/champion, among other projects he has spearheaded the regeneration of Manchester, preparing the masterplans for the both the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games and the rebuilding of the city in 1996. He was also co-author of the design guides for Manchester and Liverpool.

Working closely with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment on its Building Schools for the Future programme, he is currently supporting a number of health authorities as client design advisor and is a member of the design review panel at the Department of Health, Architecture and Design Scotland and Places Matter in the North West.

And, following nine years on the governing board of the Manchester School of Architecture, he has been appointed an Emeritus Professor of Architecture, advising on design and procurement matters.

He said: “I am delighted to be asked to be a member of the panel assessing healthcare projects as it is even more important, given the desire to minimise public spending, that we promote high-quality design and deliver facilities which contribute to the well-being of communities. I will be looking for designs which stimulate the senses and create a calm environment for all users.”

 

 

 

 

 

Damian Hebron runs the London Arts in Health Forum, an organisation designed to developing the role of the arts in improving health and well-being. He also runs the arts programme at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and previously worked for Arts Professional, in community arts, and in small and mid-scale theatre productions.

At the London Arts in Health Forum, Damian’s aim is to develop the role of culture in well-being and to promote and support arts in health across London and nationally. The organisation is free to join and offers monthly events, a monthly newsletter, training sessions and advice and support for artists, architects, clinical staff and service users, in fact anyone with an interest in arts and health. There are currently more than 2,000 members.

Damian said: “I have witnessed first-hand the value of bringing the arts to those who are unable to access them. The patient experience is dramatically improved by the arts and the working environment of staff, the experience of visitors and attitudes towards healthcare facilities are all lifted by an active engagement with the arts on the part of the healthcare provider.”

On his involvement in the BBH Awards, he added: “The awards work to acknowledge the value of people and organisations that go that extra mile to improve the experience of patients. I’m pleased to offer input into acknowledging the achievements and efforts of so many NHS staff prepared to be creative in their approach to delivering the best experience for patients. I will be looking for entries which are original, inspiring and show a genuine and meaningful engagement with patients.”

 

Sarah Waller joined the King’s Fund in 2000 to develop the Enhancing the Healing Environment (EHE) programme, having previously had a long career working at all levels in the NHS, both in nursing and human resources management.

The EHE programme is currently working with more than 200 teams from organisations across the country that deliver NHS services, including acute and mental health trusts, hospices and prisons, to improve the patient environment.

As well as leading the EHE programme, Sarah is a non-executive director and deputy chairman of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and in 2004 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She also jointly won the Outstanding Contribution to the Healthcare Environment Award at the 2004 Building Better Healthcare Awards, and was awarded a CBE for services to nursing and the NHS in 2008.

On the awards, she said: “I hope that through the awards process we are again able to showcase examples of high-quality, value-for-money designs that have significantly improved the environment of care for patients and their relatives.”

 

After qualifying as an architect, Paul Mercer initially worked in a private practice in the North East before moving into local authorities in London, where his roles included management and development of office accommodation, school design and housing and leisure projects.

He later joined the NHS as a district architect and became director of estates management at both health authority and trust level, taking responsibility for multi-site development planning and the full range of estates services.

After re-entering private practice in 1999, Paul is now a director of Tangram Architects, working across health, local authority, government departments and police service commissions.

A CABE enabler, experienced DQI facilitator and chairman of the evaluations panel for DQI applicants, he regularly conducts briefing workshops for a wide range of stakeholder groups and is also a Home Office enabler and co-chairman of the Home Office Design Review Panel, as well as being a member of the NHS Design Review Panel and former secretary of Architects for Health.

He said: “I joined the NHS in the days when there was professional estates staff in most parts of the service. There are now almost no design or construction professionals in the health service, which instead relies heavily on external consultancies, like Tangram.

“However, there are an increasing number of design-aware clients and they expect excellent design quality in their facilities, but are often hampered by tiresome procurement systems or over-burdensome procedures.

“Delivering modern healthcare is demonstrably better in well-designed facilities, but I fear that much of what has been produced in recent years is relatively mediocre.

“As BBH judges, we have a real responsibility to encourage participants to aspire to great things and set high standards for awards so that we can, over time, continue to raise the bar for the highest accolades, and consequently pull poor design out of the mire.

“Entries in previous years have always produced some really pleasant surprises, so I am expecting to be surprised and delighted again this year.”

Peter Scher practices as an independent consultant and researcher and from 1986-2007 was an editorial consultant and frequent contributor to the HD Journal for Healthcare Design and Development.

With extensive experience in the design of healthcare facilities, he works as a visiting research fellow at Arts for Health at the Manchester Metropolitan University’s Design Faculty, where his research into environmental design quality has included a study and video on Patient-Focused Architecture for Healthcare and the first independent evaluation of a major hospital arts project – The Exeter Evaluation.

Peter is a member of the Design Review Panel at the Department of Health and the Public Health Group of the International Union of Architects. Over the years he has presented papers on healthcare architecture and the arts in the UK and at international conferences in the USA, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Korea, Germany, Greece, Egypt, the Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and Argentina.

Speaking about how he got started in the healthcare market, he said: “Some decades ago I was employed as a hospital porter in an unmodernised children’s hospital and experienced every aspect of the healthcare operation and environment. As an architect this made me determined to work in healthcare design and in my first post I met, and was inspired by, a generation of outstanding architects with the same enthusiasm as I, together with a deep knowledge, understanding and experience.

“By participating as a judge in the BBH Awards I hope to be able to find and support high-quality patient-focused design. I will look for work that offers patients, staff and visitors designed environments that meet positively the 10 criteria I proposed in Patient-Focused Architecture for Healthcare.”

A qualified industrial engineer and ergonomist with an established career in regeneration, Beatrice Fraenkel is involved with a number of arts and regeneration bodies as well as being a Liverpool city councillor specialising in regeneration and economic growth.

Previously chair of the Cosmopolitan Housing Association and the Ropewalks Partnership, she led a highly-successful £100m public/private regeneration scheme for Liverpool and was a lead member responsible for the city’s successful bid to become the European Capital of Culture.

In 2002, Beatrice was appointed chairman of the South Liverpool Primary Care Trust and became an NHS design champion and a member of the NHS Estates panel.

Following the NHS re-organisation, she became chairman of Mersey Care NHS Trust in 2008 and is the organisation’s design champion, leading building projects for five new hospitals to date. She is also current chair of the Architects Registration Board.

She said: “Design quality, for me, is absolutely key to how our spaces and buildings enhance the quality of life and emotional well-being for each one of us. Healthcare design has a measurable impact on the speed of recovery, affects the confidence and trust the patient and the community have in the hospital or clinic, and enhances the working environment for all staff. I consider landscape design to be integral to whole site development, and not an ‘add on’ and this is reflected in the commissioning process we have used for our own schemes.

“Over the years I have learnt an enormous amount from being a judge for the BBH Awards and look for schemes that reflect the ethos and culture of the commissioning trust, and show how imaginative and creative use of design can deliver an outstanding scheme within the financial constraints we all have.”

 

Mike Nightingale is founder of Nightingale Associates, which is now the largest dedicated practice of healthcare, education and research laboratory architects in Europe, employing 300 staff and working out of six UK studios and one in Cape Town.

The firm’s commissions range from small health centres and schools, through to large hospitals, medical schools and research laboratories in the UK, mainland Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Australia. The company also has its own research department which has been responsible for the production of a wealth of healthcare and education government design guidance.

Mike plays a central role in the promotion of design quality in the building of healthcare facilities and was the author of Better By Design, the design guide published by the NHS. He is also a committee member of the RIBA Healthcare Client Forum and was for three years the external examiner for the MSc in health planning at the Medical Architectural Research Unit at South Bank University.

Born in South Africa, he has lived in India and Canada and strongly believes in a global approach to the design of public buildings.

He said: “I decided to specialise in healthcare architecture at the beginning of my career, and it has become a lifelong passion and I believe that design excellence is an essential ingredient to all healthcare projects, large and small.

“By participating in the awards process, I hope to contribute to the overall improvement of design standards in the healthcare estate.”

 

Jayne Halloran has worked in the NHS throughout her career, starting in HR both at regional and trust level before moving into management in 1990 when trusts were first established.

Positions she has held include clinical services manager at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where she had management responsibility for the medical directorate, including A&E and outpatients, and where she was project manager for a number of capital schemes including ward refurbishments, a special feeds unit and the reconfiguration of A&E. She was also the trust’s co-ordinator for major incidents.

Having spent a lot of time project managing capital schemes, Jayne changed direction and became the healthcare planning lead at Central Manchester. A £500m PFI scheme, the project involved the relocation of two off-site children’s hospitals.

She has been at the Royal Liverpool Hospital since April 2007 as head of PFI clinical planning and development for a £450m PFI scheme.

She said: “I am passionate about space and I love the challenge of improving the way we treat patients and visitors in the hospital environment. I am very keen to ensure that buildings are not only beautiful and pleasant places to be in, but are simple in design to allow people to find their way easily. Everyone now expects their need for privacy to be respected, the need to feel safe with easy access to staff when you need them, and a clean environment. This is even more true of the younger generation, who will not put up with out-of-date, dirty hospitals when they can opt to go elsewhere.

“I am always looking for ways of sharing and learning from others in healthcare and stepping out of your own little world and seeing what else is going on is something we need to do regularly. Meeting others at the awards is part of this research.

“I am hoping that the winning entries will truly demonstrate the impact of involving others in the design process, and hopefully that some simple, as well as innovative, results came out of it.”

A qualified building surveyor, Kevin joined the health service in 1989 and has held various roles including works manager, capital projects manager and PFI project director.

In 2003 he became director of estates and facilities at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and is now the director of operations at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust where his role covers all aspects of estates and facilities management including clinical support services such as pathology, radiology and pharmaceuticals.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building (FCIOB), in May 2006 Kevin became the national chairman of the Health, Estates and Facilities Management Association (HeFMA), standing down in May last year.

In March 2010 he completed the Institute of Hospital Managers Accredited Managers scheme and has been selected to participate in the NHS Top Leaders Programme.

Of his role on the judging panel, he said: “Many studies have shown a direct correlation between patient safety and the physical environment. Patients are now much more aware of their surroundings and given that patient satisfaction is a key performance indicator in health contracts we must now live up to their expectations.

“There has never been a more critical need to share innovation across the health service and these awards represent a fantastic vehicle by which to do so. I am not necessarily looking for the biggest and most-expensive facility or creation, but entries that demonstrate true innovation and quality that genuinely offer learning to the wider healthcare sector.”

 

Phil Nedin is a chartered engineer and a director of Arup, responsible for its global healthcare business. This role has taken him to many regions around the world to investigate best practice solutions in healthcare engineering.

He has been with Arup for more than 20 years and is currently based in the London office. Prior to joining the team he worked for the NHS in a regional health authority design group in London, where his interest in healthcare was formed.

A past president of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM), and currently a member of its international committee, Phil is also a member of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering’s Publication Advisory Panel and a member of the Department of Health’s Design Review Panel. As part of his involvement with the International Federation of Hospital Engineering, Phil is the chairman of a European Working Group considering the risks of infection transmission within the design process.

An advisor for the International Academy for Design, a member of the European Healthcare Property Network, and an advisor with the Centre of Health Design US Green Building Research Group, Phil was instrumental in creating a major 12-week healthcare design module at Cardiff University, which is a multidisciplinary course aimed at final year Masters students. He has also developed links with Leeds, Cardiff and London’s Southbank Universities.

Phil currently sits on the NHS National Patient Safety Agency’s National Reporting and Learning Service Core Advisory Group for Nutrition, Healthcare Cleanliness and Design and is a member of the Design Council’s Patient Privacy and Dignity Advisory Panel.

 

Caroline Lecko joined the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) as nutrition lead in February 2006. Prior to that she was a matron in the neuroscience unit at King’s College Hospital in London.

Since joining the NPSA, Caroline has undertaken a national review of protected mealtimes, worked with NHS organisations to identify the barriers to nutritional screening and assisted in the development of the Hydration for Health Best Practice toolkit and the 10 Key Characteristics of Good Nutritional Care toolkit. Over the past few years she has also been leading on projects relating to texture-modified diets and fluids for people with dysphagia and the management of choke and dehydration and is working with the International Hospital Federation on a project to improve infant feeding in developing countries.

In September 2009, Caroline was awarded the National Association of Care Catering Chairs Award for her contribution to improving nutrition and hydration in social care and is working with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on the development of nutritional regulation criteria, as well as taking part in the steering group developing an observational tool for CQC inspectors.

In recent months she has worked with the chief nursing officers team on developing nurse-sensitive indicators of pressure ulcers and nutrition and hydration.

 

AFTER leaving catering college, David Bedwell joined the Grosvenor Hotel in Chester as a commis chef. On completion of his apprenticeship he signed up to its general managers training programme, which he completed in 1976.

After training, he held a number of management positions within Trusthouse Forte Hotels and the Grosvenor Hotel group and in 1986 opened and ran his own country house hotel, which he sold to a chain in 1988. 

At this point David changed his career and joined the British Army as an officer, serving in the UK, Germany, Canada and the Gulf. He left at the rank of Major and joined Nuffield Hospitals as hotel services manager. He has since held a number of positions within the private sector, including regional operations manager with Compass; estates and facilities manager with Ashbourne Homes; and commercial director at Initial Hospital Services.

David joined Health Facilities Scotland in May 2007 as assistant director of facilities services and within his current role his focus is in supporting NHS boards and establishing professional and technical standards and best practice procedures throughout health services.

He said: “We have to think differently about how we provide facilities services in the future. The NHS is a rapidly-changing environment and facilities services have to be at the forefront of change, providing direction, guidance and new innovative ways of delivering our services.

“Good building and service design must go hand in hand to support clinical care and, equally, estates and facilities have to work even more closely together to ensure that every area of their work improves and adds to the patient experience.

“Through my participation in the BBH Awards I hope to highlight those people who really are working to make a difference within our organisation and change the face of modern healthcare.”     

 

 

 

With a CV which includes posts as head of design at J Sainsbury’s Homebase; managing director of design and branding agency, Caulder Moore; head of design and human factors at the NHS National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA); and partner of Plan Créatif/Crabtree Hall design consultancy, Colum Lowe has become a well-known name in the field of healthcare design.

Holding an MBA in design management and having graduated in 3D product design from the Chelsea School of Art, Colum has been responsible for many groundbreaking projects that have raised awareness throughout the sector of how the physical environment, medical equipment and medication packaging can impact on the quality and safety of healthcare provision.

While many of these schemes have resulted in published design guidance, his greatest achievement was influencing the design of the new hospital at Pembury, which was created with patient safety as a main tenet and features 100% single rooms in most locations.

Now running his own design advisory practice, BEING, Colum is currently working on projects with The Kingswood Trust in the field of adult autism; exploring process redesign projects at several NHS trusts; and advising the Design Council on its healthcare initiatives Design Bugs Out and Design for Patient Dignity.

He said: “I came into healthcare partly because of a curiosity about what my sister did for a living as an obstetrics and gynecology consultant, but mainly because my career had hit a crossroads and the then chief executive of the NPSA sold me an irresistible vision; that I could use the power of design, not to sell more shampoo, but to save lives. I was hooked!”

On his involvement in the awards, he added: “I gain tremendously from the BBH Awards because it is a privileged opportunity to see some of the best innovations in healthcare and understand the process of their creation and the impact they have on the everyday lives of healthcare staff and patients.
“What I look for in a entry, other than pure imagination and creativity, is proof that the design process has fully involved the users and that their experiences and needs have shaped the end result.”

 

Colin Mathews trained as an industrial designer and has worked as a consultant in a wide range of industries. His product portfolio includes projects for inhalers, nasal drug delivery devices, scientific and medical instruments and a range of injectors including auto injectors and the first dial-a-dose insulin delivery pen for diabetics.

He is now working as chief operating officer for Team Consulting, which provides human factors, design and engineering product development services to the healthcare and life science sectors.

Colin said: “At Team, we are motivated by helping to create products that enhance lives. Design has an important part to play in improving the patient experience and medical outcomes.”

Of the awards, he added: “By participating as a product category judge, I hope to draw on my experience of developing a wide range of healthcare products to be able to promote the patient benefit of good design in the sector.

“I will be looking for a well-thought-through development process, clear patient benefits with supporting evidence, and consideration of manufacture, use and disposal.”

 

Ed Matthews has 30 years of product design and development experience, of which the last 20 have been spent working on medical devices and healthcare products.

Ed is now responsible for patient safety work at the Helen Hamlyn Centre, where a people-centred and socially-inclusive approach to design supports independent living and works for ageing and diverse populations, improved standards of healthcare and patient safety, and a flow of innovative ideas for business.

On his role in the BBH Awards, he said: “It is an honour to be asked to bring together the judging panel for the product categories and I want to thank the team for the experience, integrity and wisdom they bring to the judging work and am very encouraged by the steadily-increasing quality and number of entries submitted.”