Kings Mill Hospital - OBC

Auburn Ainsley (now Pennington Choices) were engaged in the lead role for preparation of a Theatres & Critical Care Outline Business Case by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation trust. The project involved the proposed re-development of existing Retained Estate, with the preferred option being a combined new build Theatres and Critical Care Unit, located partly on an area of existing buildings and partly extended over an existing car park.

The Challenge

Clinical strategy issues. There was a lack of clear clinical strategy at appointment date. This required the introduction of an additional process and time period (pre OBC) to work with SFHT stakeholders to develop a jointly agreed project brief in the form of output specifications for each department and a whole hospital policy. Breadth of shareholder engagement. Due to the wide-ranging scope of the project, the volume and extent of shareholder engagement was challenging. We overcame this by establishing the appropriate project structure and governance from the outset, including securing the input of SFHT Chief Exec at Steering Group level. In addition to this, closer liaison between the Medical Directors of the two main NHS Trusts has contributed to improved strategic liaison and direction. Delayed engagement. As part of the OBC design development process, terms of engagement were agreed in which all attendees were committed to freeing up time to help with the design process. Although there were some issues faced during the initial design phase, involving the Chief Exec (at Steering Group) and members of our project team at Theatres Senior Leadership meetings helped to subsequently improve representation and enable a more fully developed and “challenged” design.

What We Did

We acted as Project Manager and Cost Adviser and employed the roles of Healthcare Planner, Architect, Accountant and Business Case Author externally. Employing these roles externally was essential to support the project with the experience and knowledge required for the job. It also allowed us to focus our efforts on our areas of expertise, for duties such as; ensuring the Business Case was drafted in compliance with the NHS 5 Case Model, chairing all project team meetings and workshops, tracking progress and reporting to Steering Group, liaising with NHS approvers, overseeing Risk Management and managing the OBC capital and cash flow forecasts.

Our Achievements

As a result of the close involvement of the Regional NHSI Implementation Advisor in this process, the Trust developed a positive working relationship with NHSI. An established (Finance) point of contact with the client, who has the authority to “sign off” analysis at interim stages. An agreed analysis of the current cost/income/activity for the services covered by the business case A clear understanding of the project objectives, especially with regard to the client’s expectations for potential financial/economic benefits A good relationship with QS or capital cost advisers Regular meetings to agree actions and review progress (teleconferencing can work as well as face to face meetings to support this particular process).