Hospital of the future: the last word

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Over the past year, Re:State has been working on a landmark programme titled ‘Hospital of the Future’. This was predicated on the idea that the 'upstream' shift to prevention alone will not address the existential crisis hospitals are experiencing. The intention was to fundamentally rethink the hospital system as if it was being designed anew today, and to identify what would be needed from government to enable this transformation.

This has been a high-impact series with multiple recommendations adopted by the Government – including our exclusively proposed virtual hospital recommendation, which was personally announced by the Prime Minister.

To formally conclude the programme and make its findings more accessible, we've published this short final paper distilling the key themes and almost 50 recommendations from across all three reports.

Re:State is thrilled this concluding essay is accompanied by a foreword signed by Daniel Elkeles, Chief Executive, NHS Providers, and Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation, who represent England's health trusts. We are also delighted to have received endorsements from hospital trust Chief Executives Professor Joe Harrison CBE and Nikhil Khashu.

Previous 'Hospital of the Future' reports:

Hospital of the future: a framing paper lays out the deep structural and cultural issues causing the fundamental crisis hospitals are facing, then calling for a reimagining of secondary care.

Hospital of the future: hospital as a service, not a building outlines a new vision of hospitals beyond the four walls of the hospital building, combining a radical increase in virtual care with renewed approaches at system-wide integration.

Hospital of the future: ending the patient gridlock examines what is preventing patients from moving in, out and through hospitals efficiently – otherwise known as patient flow – then recommending a dramatic shift to align the hospital workforce to the needs of patients.