Abstract

Macmillan works in partnership with NHS trusts to improve cancer environments by providing grant funding for partner organisations to raise the quality of the finished scheme, and by providing expertise gained by developing more than 250 projects for cancer treatment, care and support.

This ‘blurring the boundaries’ of relationships and responsibilities between the NHS and a charity organisation such as Macmillan means that their combined research and expertise can enhance the design and operation of medical facilities.

This case study will demonstrate how the clinical and wellbeing briefs were developed in partnership between Macmillan, the Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and an architectural practice. Particular focus will be given to the importance of the operational policy in developing the brief for combined clinical and wellbeing services.

The presentation will interrogate what ‘quality’ means in the context of cancer care environments, and investigate the ways in which quality can be evaluated and improved during the design process to ensure that it’s delivered in the final building. The talk will then look at the implications of the post-occupancy evaluation and how this feeds into a continuous quality improvement loop, both for the NHS trust and for Macmillan’s research.

Based on Macmillan’s evidence-based research, we’ll attempt to define what ‘quality’ means for patients and for staff, before illustrating the implications this can have on the design process, and how ‘quality’ can substantially affect the way cancer buildings operate and feel.

The paper will include a look at the design tools developed during these investigations, and consider how art and branding should be integrated into buildings, using built examples to illustrate what ‘good practice’ looks like.