How modular Changing Places can enhance accessible toilets in the NHS hospitals

Accessibility is a crucial aspect of healthcare provision, ensuring that all patients, regardless of their physical abilities, can access medical facilities with dignity and independence. Over 250,000 people in the UK have disabilities meaning they need help with changing and using the toilet. When a hospital doesn’t have a Changing Places toilet, disabled people and their families may struggle to attend important medical appointments, or have the ability to visit their family and friends.

For many years, NHS hospitals have tried to improve their accessible toilet provision with the inclusion of a Changing Places toilet, but some have faced obstacles to install these facilities, whether that has been due to a lack of internal space, or the funds to carry out the necessary structural work. However, with modular construction becoming more popular, this blog will take a look at how modular Changing Places are providing a quick and cost-effective solution for more hospitals to provide accessible toilet facilities.

Accessible Toilet Provision in the NHS

According to the Changing Places Consortium, 84 hospitals in England have one registered Changing Places toilet. As a result, it means that out of 854 hospitals in England, less than one in ten hospitals have a Changing Places toilet. Thankfully that number is increasing thanks to recent changes to building regulations and funding initiatives.

Since January 2021, any new hospital or primary care centre is legally required to install Changing Places facilities, as set out in Document M and BS 8300-2:2018 building regulations. With regards to funding, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) allocated a £2 million fund back in 2018, with the objective of helping over 100 NHS hospitals to build Changing Places facilities.

This funding was officially rolled out in January 2020, with an initial £500,000 shared across ten hospital Trusts in England to install 16 new Changing Places toilets.

Changing Places Installation Obstacles

Despite positive changes being made to facilitate the installation of more Changing Places, there are still issues that are preventing some NHS Trusts from including these facilities in their hospitals. The main obstacles often revolve around a lack of internal space to house a compliant facility in their existing buildings.

As we know, British Standard 8300:2018 states that a Changing Places needs to be a minimum of 12m2 (3m x 4m), with a ceiling height of 2.4m. This ensures there is enough room for a disabled person when they are not in their wheelchair, when they are in their wheelchair and with up to two carers to comfortably use the facilities.

However, to meet these size requirements, some NHS hospitals simply do not have the space available internally to include a compliant facility.

Modular Construction

A lack of space and capacity in NHS hospitals isn’t just an issue that is confined to accessible toilets. As discussed in one of our previous blogs, the NHS is constantly looking at innovative ways to free up space, especially to reduce backlogs with waiting lists.

One of the solutions that is becoming more popular to tackle this issue is with modular construction. This quick and cost-effective method of building is allowing the NHS to build surgical hubs and outpatient centres externally, helping them to meet patient demand. We’ve this work exceptionally well at the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, with their ‘Think Big’ initiative.

With the help of Future Healthspaces partner, Innova Care Concepts, repurposed equipment and materials from the Nightingale project were used to create an external ‘surgical hub’, featuring a series of consultation rooms and a breast screening scanning room, on the top floor of Beales department store. We can see in this instance how modular construction is paving the way improve efficiency and medical outcomes.

In order to help improve accessibility, this same method of construction can be applied to increasing Changing Places provision in NHS hospitals.

Enhancing Accessibility – Modular Changing Places

Modular Changing Places are already helping many architects, local authorities and businesses to overcome the issue of space, providing a viable option to make existing venues and buildings more accessible. Pre-fabricated offsite, modular construction makes installation of Changing Places quicker and easier, with little need for extensive renovation or construction work. Installed externally in half a day onto a prepared base with services already in place, they are the quickest way of including a compliant Changing Place.

They are designed specifically to deliver fully accessible restrooms, and with NHS hospitals requiring support to include more accessible toilets, modular Changing Places can help facilitate the increase in available facilities to patients and their families.

Equipped with specialist equipment such as overhead hoist systems and height-adjustable changing benches, hospitals that don’t have the required space internally can have a modular accessible toilet that can be installed in unused spaces, car parks and placed in standalone units. Their flexibility makes them a cost-effective solution for enhancing accessibility, as they can be retrofitted or added to new constructions, without compromising the overall aesthetic or functionality of the space.

Future Healthspaces partner, Innova Care Concepts, specialise in Changing Places and have delivered modular facilities for the likes of RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Whiteley Shopping Centre and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

We’ve seen the benefits that modular construction is having on helping the NHS meet capacity. With an increasing demand for greater accessible toileting facilities, NHS hospitals can make a huge difference to those with complex disabilities by embracing modular Changing Places.