Healthcare construction is facing considerable challenges in 2026, not least the delays to the New Hospital Programme and the substantial backlog for existing, ageing facilities.
With keeping critical healthcare environments operational essential, reducing project disruption and wasted administrative time must be a priority.
Payapps’ Anthony Puma examines the disruptive challenges facing contractors and subcontractors working in the healthcare construction sector and highlights how fragmented manual payment processes add unnecessary burden.
Based on current disruptions in healthcare construction, it is important to consider the uses of technology, such as automated application for payment software, to minis this.
The NHS is quite rightly revered across the world as the gold standard of accessible healthcare. However, severe capital funding constraints and outdated infrastructure and technology are providing significant hurdles for this widely-heralded institution. This is perfectly illustrated by the substantial delays to the government’s New Hospital Programme (NHP). Launched in 2020 to ‘address the deteriorating state of NHS hospitals in England’, the NHP planned to deliver 40 new hospitals by
2030. However, various planning gaps and uncertainty led to a 2025 reset of the scheme, seeing the target amended to 46 new hospitals by 2040.
The NHS also has a huge backlog of critical infrastructure repairs, with the British Medical Association (BMA) revealing health spending growth has been below average since 2010, resulting in a cumulative underspend of hundreds of billions of pounds.
The major challenge of fragmented systems
Despite the significant number of payment applications submitted, managed and approved during a single hospital development project, many contractors, supply chains and finance professionals still rely on fragmented, manual payment processes, such as spreadsheets and emails.
However, as spreadsheets get larger and the number of formats and formulas increase, the likelihood of errors or inaccuracies rises. As does the risk of these being missed – with spreadsheets rarely subject to meticulous checks.
Payments and valuations can also be inputted incorrectly, leading to under- or over-spending, disputes or project delays.
Inconsistently named spreadsheets can also easily get lost in multiple filing systems and email inboxes, with hours wasted spent hunting for them. Furthermore, without quick access to the required information, payment notice deadlines can be missed, leaving the relevant party non-compliant.
With so much spreadsheet information, it can also be difficult to make sense of the data. As a result, there can often be a lack of meaningful analysis, preventing informed decision-making and increasing the likelihood of delays.
How do automated applications for payment software work?
By moving away from the fragmented manual payment application process towards digitisation, commercial and finance professionals across healthcare construction, facilities can reduce application inaccuracies, ensure easy-to-follow audit trails and reduce administrative time, vital in such time- and cost-sensitive environments.
Standardised and automated calculations significantly save time, reduce risk and, ultimately increase accuracy. The real-time visibility also makes it quick and easy for contractors and subcontractors to track and monitor payment applications from any device.
Having a detailed action history of individual payment applications with timestamps of when applications were created, submitted and assessed enables more confident and data-driven decision-making. Supporting information, including commentary exchanged between the contractor and subcontractor, can be quickly accessed too.
With applications submitted in agreed standardised formats, teams know what to expect; speeding up administration and ensuring both subcontractor and contractor know what was agreed in the contract.
This proved incredibly beneficial for Bouygues UK, for whom the healthcare market has always been key. For years, it had been relying on emails and spreadsheets and felt that adopting a web-based solution could transform its management of supply chain applications for payment. Commercial Director, Fabrice Davis, revealed: “It makes payments easier. It simplifies everything and makes processes slicker for us as a business. I can see every contract that we’ve set up in the system, any
outstanding payments and where they’re currently sitting in terms of the approval workflow.
“I can see who’s holding up the process and I can discuss it in a timely manner with the right people, before any issues arise.”
Ensuring regulatory compliance
Hospital projects typically involve a number of different industry professionals, from general contractors through to medical gas installers, equipment suppliers and engineering firms. Consequently, there can often be a multitude of applications for payment being submitted and assessed at one time.
The visibility created by using automated application for payment software will enable the healthcare trust, project owner or contractor to see whether subcontractors and supply chains are being paid appropriately and on time, and whether contractual obligations are being met.
Often, healthcare trusts and authorities will be required to demonstrate appropriate uses of public funds, compliance with procurement rules and accurate contractor and subcontractor billing. Having immediate access to critical documentation and up-to-date payment application data can therefore ensure regulatory compliance and provide the peace of mind needed.
With the healthcare construction sector already struggling to keep pace with the NHP timeline, it is imperative that reducing project disruption and wasted administrative time through the leveraging of technology are at the forefront of healthcare trust and contractor decision-making.
