Healthcare Estates 2015 sees record attendance

Overall attendance to Healthcare Estates 2015, which took place in Manchester in October,  increased significantly year on year. Visitors and delegates flocked to Manchester for the biggest showcase of products and services in the UK Healthcare sector.

Steve Webb, Director for organisers, Step Exhibitions, said ‘Attendance was up 25% on day one, resulting in a busy day on the exhibition floor and a packed opening keynote session by Mike Hobbs of Carillion. The keynote presentation was followed by a panel discussion featuring Peter Sellars, Department of Health, Dr Sue O’Connell, Community Health Partnerships, Mike Hobbs, Carillion, Julian Amey, IHEEM and Karen Baker, Isle of Wight NHS Trust, and was Chaired by Simon Corben, CAPITA’.

Webb continued; ‘Official attendance for the conference, exhibition and dinner surpassed 3,600. Visitor attendance was up by 14% in total, with 1,527 visitors compared to 1,451 in 2014. The total number of 3,685 includes visitors, delegates, speakers and exhibitor guests to this year’s Exhibition, Conference and Dinner held in October in Manchester. Healthcare Estates also saw a significant number of NHS VIPs representing senior estates professionals, from many of the UK’s leading hospital trusts in the UK attend the event’.

The attendance continues the increases seen since the event moved to Manchester, with attendees able to network with more than 200 exhibitors; a record number since we moved to Manchester Central, and representing more than 220 suppliers to the Healthcare sector.

474 delegates and speakers attended the two day conference, while a record attendance at the IHEEM dinner of 500 enjoyed a fantastic evening at the Mercure Piccadilly in Manchester with guest presenter, Ex-England rugby International Gareth Chilcott.

Victoria Emerton, Conference Director said; ‘with an overarching theme of “Healthcare Efficiency Through Innovation”, we focussed the event around the four main areas of Estates & Facilities Management; Engineering; Planning Design & Construction, and Energy & Efficiency. Complimented by our great keynotes; Mike Hobbs, Managing Director of Carillion Health, Sarah Senior, Chief Financial Officer, Greater Manchester Health and Social Devolution, and a real coup with Lord Carter representing the Department of Health, and talking to a packed room on the second day.’

The Labour peer charged by the government with improving productivity in the NHS, has found “inexplicable and sometimes unacceptable” variations in the way that hospitals use scarce resources. As the health service struggles to meet an unprecedented target to deliver £22bn in efficiency savings by 2020, Lord Carter of Coles compared the NHS to a range of independent grocery outlets, rather than a supermarket chain, smartly driving economies of scale from a head office.

After conducting detailed work with more than 30 English hospitals in recent months to examine whether they were getting value for money from their staff and their suppliers, Lord Carter will now begin conversations with every Trust in the country, aimed at giving each an individual target for savings. He suggested that hospitals, facing a combined deficit of more than £2bn by the end of the financial year, now understand that change is unavoidable.

A key aim in the coming year is to introduce a single national code for individual items, which would allow hospitals easily to compare the price that they had agreed, with that paid by other Trusts.

With nearly 100 speakers and Chairs at the conference, and five theatres on the exhibition floor, this year Healthcare Estates offered a myriad of content and opportunities to find out the latest innovations, new products, and solutions to issues faced by healthcare workers on a daily basis. Visitors and delegates were full of praise for the event;

‘Very good – felt this year the information provided during the conference sessions was really pertinent and useful. Good speakers. A good range of exhibitors.’ Estates Director, NHS Trust

A really interesting conference this year – I think the range of speakers and topics covered is becoming increasingly more interesting year on year.’Healthcare Consultant, Interserve

‘A great exhibition.’, Estates Officer at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Testament to the quality of the exhibition was borne out in a survey of visitors following the event, with all respondents finding the event of use, over 88% rating the exhibition good to excellent, and 72% arranging a follow up meeting with an exhibitor. Exhibitor numbers increased as Healthcare was again at the forefront of government spending ahead of the publication of Lord Carter’s report.

‘This was my first visit, having had a colleague recommend it to me. I will definitely want to visit again next year. I found suppliers who could help me with some of the projects I had been looking to start, but had no success until attending this event.’ Healthcare Estates healthcare visitor.

For 2016, the event moves back to its traditional slot of the first week of October; the 4 & 5 October again at Manchester Central. Organisers Step Exhibitions are developing a compelling programme for the conference, and a free theatre programme for the five theatres complementing the exhibition.  The Call for Presentations for the 2016 conference is open, and presentations can be submitted until 1 February 2016 via the Healthcare Estates website:  www.healthcare-estates.com.

Taking on board comments from our visitors this year, we are increasing the amount of catering space at the event for visitors, and adding a workshop and networking area on the exhibition floor to allow visitors and trusts to discuss ideas, while reinforcing five key reasons to attend Healthcare Estates.

• Meet with more than 200 exhibitors and source the latest information for products and services
• Find what you need to help tackle the day to day issues you face in your role
• Meet colleagues and others working in healthcare, swap ideas, discover new innovations, and take ideas back to your teams
• Bring yourself up to speed on the issues that could affect your role
• Enjoy two days of FREE content, and benefit from the advice and expert opinions from industry leaders

Our marketing for the event combines the key disciplines within estates; Design, Build, Manage, Maintain – the new creative for 2016 continues the ‘journey’ theme; way-finding within a hospital and the concept of direction and progress being represented in the logo, culminating in the coming together and aligning of the key disciplines.

Healthcare Estates will next be held on 4 & 5 October 2016 at Manchester Central www.healthcare-estates.com

For more information contact the sales team: 01892 518877 Email: healthcare@stepex.com