Hospital building maintenance : report of the Committee, 1968-70 / chairman : David Woodbine Parish.

  • Great Britain. Committee of Inquiry on Hospital Building Maintenance and the Work of Building Supervisors
Date:
1970
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hospital building maintenance : report of the Committee, 1968-70 / chairman : David Woodbine Parish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    REPORT 1. TERMS OF REFERENCE 1.1. The Committee was appointed in July 1968 by The Right Honourable William Ross, M.B.E., M.P., the Secretary of State for Scotland, and The Right Honourable Kenneth Robinson, M.P., the then Minister of Health, and given the following terms of reference: “To consider the present arrangements for the conduct of hospital building maintenance and minor capital works, including the nature of the work at present done by hospital building supervisors, and their responsibilities and qualifications, and to make recommendations on: (a) what changes, if any, are needed in the interest of efficient hospital building maintenance; and (b) the duties, responsibilities, qualifications and training of the supervisory staff required”’. 1.2. On 1 April 1969 health functions in relation to Wales were transferred from the Secretary of State for Social Services, who had assumed overall respon- sibility for the Ministry of Health, to the Secretary of State for Wales; but we consider there is no reason to draw any fundamental distinction between hospital maintenance requirements in England, Scotland and Wales and our report is | addressed equally to the respective Secretaries of State. For convenience the report is written in terms of England and Wales. Where Scottish differences are significant for the argument or conclusions they are noted in the text. Otherwise we conclude that the arguments and the recommendations in respect of Regional Hospital Boards (R.H.B.s) and Hospital Management Committees (H.M.C.s) in England and Wales are equally applicable to Regional Hospital Boards and Boards of Management (B.M.s) in Scotland. (See also Appendix I.) 1.3. We believe.there are two ways of interpreting the broad intention behind our terms of reference: we are required either to confine our analysis to the changes necessary to improve efficiency within the existing organisational structure for building maintenance based on Hospital Management Committees; or to present a report containing much more radical and far reaching proposals. We have therefore ventured to make a number of immediate and some further mid term recommendations designed to improve efficiency within the existing organisation; and we have indicated areas where in the longer term, and to some extent the mid term, we consider that further research and study ought to be undertaken. The comparatively limited time available has not permitted a fully detailed consideration of all aspects of each of these but at least we have attempted to give reasons for any proposed research and study and have defined the general objectives. 1.4. We have found it difficult in practice to draw a clear distinction between building and engineering maintenance work in hospitals—either in consideration of the accounts and costing returns produced by the Departments or where both disciplines are engaged on related sections of the same work. We feel that the requirements of building and engineering maintenance are so interlocked that
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