Simon Lovegrove
Director, UK
Biography
Mr Simon Lovegrove has been in the health and care sector for over 30 years, from specialist hospital construction, to the management of hospitals, nursing homes and other resources. Since 2007, he has been more actively involved in the relationship of health and care in new city environments. He has worked with the Qatar Sovereign Fund’s property arm, Samsung C&T, and the Governments in the UK, Portugal, Hungary, Ethiopia, Libya, China, Vienam and the Philippines. He and his company MHealth maintain a research database through their work and the hospitals and institutions with which they work.
Abstract
Health and care are changing at an ever greater speed. There are a number of factors, the demographics, characterised by an ageing population, the increasing urbanistion, epidemiology through the growth of non-communicable diseases, many of which can be preventable to a greater or lesser extent, such as diabetes, better technologies and clinical techniques which are reducing the patient’s length of stay in hospital, informatics and digital technologies that allow more post-discharge options and overall better possibilities of monitoring the health of people. However, these do not all necessarily “pull in the same direction” nor are they precisely the same in the context of varying countries.
All too often the clinicians are frustrated by their inability to handle this as effectively as they wish. We need to change existing models of care, particularly the planning and implementation of physical assets and their management to better support front-line services.
The other “elephant in the room” is the inability of financial resources to keep up with the demand for ever greater services.
We as individuals must take greater responsibility for our health and we as planners and managers must stimulate ideas that can create a better environment for this to work.