Over the last two decades the health sector has grown into one of Identity Consult’s core business areas, driven by sustained client relationships and a commitment to delivering projects that make a genuine difference for families, patients and clinicians.
Mark Doherty, Identity Consult’s Managing Director and Health Sector Lead, explains how that journey began and why the work matters: “We’ve grown alongside clients for more than 20 years, transferring private sector experience in the public health sphere. What motivates me is seeing the real results – more theatre capacity, quicker and local access to diagnostics and overall better outcomes for patients. Our team takes pride in tackling technically complex projects in live clinical environments and bringing technical confidence to those situations.”
That motivation is visible throughout the Identity Consult portfolio. Recent highlights include remodelling and refurbishment projects across for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust estate including modernising theatres and wards, interventional radiology at Leeds Children’s Hospital, Community Diagnostics Centre in Stockton for South Tees NHS Foundation Trust, and a programme of diagnostic facilities across York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals – including the Community Diagnostic Centre in Scarborough.
One of Identity Consult’s first projects in health was the Low Grange Health Village, at the time an example of an integrated healthcare approach; an ambitious, £17 million community hub bringing four GP surgeries together alongside a dental centre and a public library. “Low Grange showed how we could deliver strategic client support as well as bricks and mortar,” says Mark, reflecting on the project’s lasting community impact.
Identity Consult’s first private hospital project, Tees Valley Hospital in Middlesbrough, and early partnerships such as WW Medical Facilities Projects for Ramsay Healthcare were pivotal moments in the consultancy’s evolution. Those early successes helped the Identity Consult team demonstrate acute experience and subsequently win major NHS work – including complex theatre refurbishments for Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – and to sustain growth through multiple market cycles. The recent community diagnostic centres in Stockton and Scarborough demonstrate how the health team continues to respond to rising clinical demand; the team is now positioning for Phase 2 delivery across several programmes.
Delivering these projects though can often bring challenges for the team. Mark points to persistent issues that shape the sector’s outlook – ageing estates with significant backlog maintenance, constrained capital, rising expectations around Net Zero, and unprecedented pressure to reduce elective waiting lists by treating people closer to home. “Funding is improving but still won’t meet demand,” he warns. “Trusts need rapid expansion of community diagnostic centres and neighbourhood health facilities, but that stretches capital. Our role is to shape business cases that prove affordability and secure sign‑off.”
These pressures inform Identity Consult’s working methods. The team advocates early contractor involvement, collaborative cost planning and proactive market engagement to protect programme certainty and whole life value. “Getting teams together from inception makes a huge difference,” says Mark. He stresses that treating whole life value, not just the lowest capital cost, is central when balancing tight public finances with the need for durable, flexible clinical space.
Modern clinical technologies and bespoke installation demands complicate benchmarking and programme planning, requiring specialist skills and careful sequencing so hospitals remain operational. Colleagues across Identity Consult echo the need for staged retrofit and decarbonisation strategies that do not compromise clinical performance. “We need to embrace modern methods of construction and digital advances to improve certainty, efficiency and quality,” Mark adds, emphasising adaptability in design so facilities can evolve with changing models of care.
Training and capacity building are core to that ambition. Delivering capital programmes at scale requires people, project managers, quantity surveyors, installers, and clinicians engaged throughout delivery. Identity Consult’s internal approach to staff development, rapid career progression and skill sharing is seen as a competitive advantage. “I’m proud of the team and their achievements,” Mark says. “We give people the chance to work on high‑impact health projects, which both upskills team members and broadens our capabilities.”
For many on the team, the work is deeply personal. Layla Payne, now an Associate, recalls delivering the Stockton diagnostics centre, a project that closed local inequalities and delivered high community impact on a tight budget. “Before, patients would need to travel for diagnostic services,” she remembers. “It is incredibly rewarding to know that we’ve made a difference by delivering a project that gives the community a solution.”
Ultimately, Identity Consult’s health work is grounded in humility, technical expertise and, most importantly, a patient focused ethic. The team measures success by day-to-day improvements for patients and staff; shorter waits, safer theatres and more compassionate neonatal environments. As the sector confronts funding constraints and technological change, Identity Consult intends to meet those pressures with collaboration, pragmatic innovation and the practical experience that Mark and the team have built over the last 20 years.
“We’ve been fortunate to work on projects that make a real difference,” Mark reflects. “That sense of impact, helping communities, clinicians and patients, is why we do what we do.”