NHS Property Services is expanding its Healthy Places programme to over 300 projects which will transform the NHS estate nationwide, support Integrated Care Systems and enable excellent patient care.

Healthy Places focuses on the successful delivery of projects that enable improved health and social care, helping the NHS get the most from its estate and drive better outcomes for patients and clinicians. Projects range from refurbishments and new builds, to accommodating social prescribing initiatives, to estate optimisation and repurposing of vacant space.

All the projects support local NHS estate plans through collaboration with commissioners and wider Integrated Care System (ICS) partners. This allows rapid delivery of projects by aligning local and national property capacity and capability, knowledge sharing of best practice and continuous learning.

The new projects, which will potentially benefit over four million patients, will cover a wider scope including coronavirus recovery, supporting the Greener NHS agenda, and improving site accessibility. NHS Property Services has also said that it will also be growing social prescribing spaces, introducing new NHS Open Space locations for flexible booking and improving NHS staff welfare areas.

Martin Steele, CEO at NHS Property Services, said: “At a time when the NHS is facing challenges never seen before, these projects will be integral in helping to support the health service moving forwards. By using the estate more efficiently, over the coming years we can provide better quality spaces for the provision of healthcare, which will improve patients’ experience, as well as create better environments for healthcare professionals to deliver care."