Locating a Hospital in London - Literature review Example

LOCATING A HOSPITAL IN LONDON This project is aimed at identifying the best site for a hospital construction in London. The site should have a suitable location in such a way that an ambulance can operate in a span of ten minutes. Basing on these requirements, a real estate agent can be of great help since they are aware of most lands that can be used as the stipulated construction sites. However, personal preferences should be of greater value and the characteristics can help assist in identifying the best piece of land. Successful construction can only be possible if the hospital is built along a street that does not act like a highway and is easily accessible with the vehicle transport. The site should be big enough to accommodate a hospital with about 7000 rooms where about 800 beds can be placed and more than fifty two thousand hospital equipment and furniture. The stated rooms can appear to be incredibly many but with rooms needed for emergencies, offices, rehabilitations, outpatient and inpatient services; they cannot be enough. A site accommodating such a hospital ought to be as big as forty football pitches to ensure that there is even available space for hospital employees and patients’ families parking. Additionally, the hospital prospected has to have a number of towers to save on cost and land. Currently, most hospitals have to deal with congestion and extreme struggling incase more facilities are needed. Having a lot of land like that stated above ensures that the hospital can build all facilities required. Expansion of hospitals after their construction is always an unavoidable act. For this reason, there is a need of buying land as big as the one stated above to cater for expansion in the later years1. London has four major parts that include the southwest London, southeast London, northeast London and north central London. According to statistics, there are about twenty hospitals in each stated part but most are not newly build. Among these hospitals, a number are faced with difficulties of managing cleanliness. In choosing a site for constructing a hospital, it is essential to ensure that the site is near to multiple sources of water and power. It is essential to realize most hospitals around the London town centre are faced with problems related to water shortages since they did not take precaution during construction. Some locations may have all the other qualities but lack water. This should not be such a major problem since there are artificial build wells and boreholes that can supply the hospital with enough water. If the location decided upon lacks natural water supply, it can only be wise to ensure that there is enough access of water underground that can be dug out, pumped into the hospital storage areas, and later on purified for use in all hospital dealings. This is because hospitals require incredibly clean environs and a continuous supply of power. Sanitation is a common factor leading to the closure of most hospitals2. The above geographical described land suitable for hospital building can be identified using the digital terrain model. This form of elevation bare earth model that is inclusive of features showing natural terrain heights. This tool can identify places having river valleys and barren ridge tops that have elevated vegetations and other features that provide best sites for a hospital construction. The models advantage is the provision of a place to offer the generation of contours to ensure applications such as geologic, bases and topographic mapping. This is quite affordable since in London, the prices range from one dollar to forty dollars per each square kilometer. These prices vary regarding on the client’s size of AOL and the location of the hospital in prospect. Although there are is no accurate information on the current number of hospitals situated in London, it has been stipulated that the number is about sixty. It is essential to realize that the number of hospitals keeps changing since more hospitals continue being built, are closed or two hospitals are merged if in the same location. Currently, the health needs in London requires more hospitals that can cater for the need of all people regardless of their age and financial levels3. Choosing a site for the construction of any building whether commercial or private can be quite demanding. It is the initial decision that an individual has to deal with even before settling for anything else. Faced with a challenge to choose the best site for a hospital in London, it is wise to avoid all roads that are always faced with a lot of traffic. Although it is widely advised that busy roads offer maximum visibility, those busy, roads can cause a client to reconsider such a hospital and ask for services elsewhere. In my opinion, it would be better choosing a site some blocks away from well-known thorough fares instead of a very busy highway. This choice offers one convenience and clients do not have to fight a lot of traffic before reaching the hospitals’ packing lot. In my opinion, the site should be nearest to at least one main road that can create easy access to the hospital services with the use of patients’ emergency vehicles4. While planning to build a hospital, it is important to ensure that no predisposing factors are ignored. These factors include demographic factors, geographic accessibility, health behaviors and aspects of culture. Distance is a geographic factor that has to be considered during any plans on building a hospital. Most largely build hospitals in London, are within the town centers offering maximum access to those people living in its environs. For this reason, it is essential to construct the stipulated hospital within a radius of 5km.This provides access to all the people living in London city and other parts. There are many effects related to excessive noise near health facilities. These effects include increased sense to pain, causes irritability, prolonged wound healing and the induction of headaches. Factories can be incredibly noisy hence the need to avoid building hospitals in their surroundings. According to researches, just as the body responds to stress it does similarly respond to noise in the same manner. Factory noise levels have been identified to exceed the level of noise recommended in any hospital and this can intensify the patient’s complications. The data discussed above can be analyzed if put into different data translations and organized in geographical information system5. The information can be put into different formats that include raster formats and vector formats. Analysis information can be organized in raster formats where all vector versions are converted into one hundred sized foot cell and analyzed making this the best and the simplest form of computation. Translating demographic and socioeconomics data has to be done on tables. This information consists of the hospitals general geographic location, attributes associated with the prospected plan and all other associated data. The provided discussion on transportation and the factors to be considered can be adapted in a vector analysis. Some information provided in the research paper above required exemplary ways of data collection. For instance, conducted interviews from people’s points of views provided adequate information that in my opinion is of great quality. Adding on to the research was the use of questionnaires that had a lot of socioeconomic and demographic questions, healthcare beliefs, location convenience questions and commonly required aspects of a quality service hospital. From the above research, it is clear that the process of constructing a hospital in the perfect geographical area is quite a demanding task. It is a challenge to build a hospital that can out do most already built hospitals in London since they already perform both inpatient and outpatient services. Never the less, with the above discussed strategies; it is without doubt that the hospital will be of great help to both the London city and its people. The prospected hospital is an incredibly large hospital that will offer great numbers of jobs and offer health assistance to all people regardless of their age or poverty line levels. This is a great move towards achieving success and acceptance by all individuals. In addition, the planned location is ideal for all emergencies and patients’ can reach the hospital within ten minutes increasing the chances of surviving. References Isalkar, Umesh. "Water shortage: Hospitals manage with bore wells, tankers." The times of India, 2012: P.p 7-8. Maclean, Susan. "Health care facilities." Building strategies and sustainability, 2009: P.p 11-12. Novak, Mathew. "Geographic Information Systems." Geographical and social findings, 2009: P.p 2-3. Stanch, Seline. "Digital Terrain Model." Intermap, 2005: P.p 5. Veen, John. "Health care systems in London." World health care systems, 2010: P.p 12. Read More