Standards · Standard or regulation
HBN 00-01 (and FGI Guidelines)
Health Building Note 00-01: General design guidance for healthcare buildings
In plain words
What it covers.
The core NHS design guidance for healthcare buildings, supported by specialist HBNs for each department (for example HBN 04-01 for inpatient rooms and HBN 26 for theatres). It covers planning principles, adjacencies, flows of patients, staff and goods, space standards and flexibility. In the United States, the FGI Guidelines play the same role.
Who uses it: Architects, health planners, estates and clinical engineers reviewing designs.
A summary written by BMEssentia for learning, not the text of the standard. Always work from the current official edition and the manufacturer's instructions.
It covers
- Planning and adjacency principles
- Patient, staff and goods flows
- Clinical space standards
- Infection prevention by design
- Flexibility and future proofing
- Departmental HBNs
Key points
What engineers need to know.
- Departments that share patients often (ED, imaging, theatres, ICU) should be close together.
- Clean and dirty flows should be kept apart.
- Single bedrooms around 19 m2 allow care on both sides of the bed and equipment access.
- Design for heavy equipment: floor loading, access routes and lifts.
- Plan space for growth and change over a building's long life.
- Involve clinical users early through design reviews.
Medical City
Where you practise it.
- Hospital Architect clinical adjacency planning (HBN 00-01, FGI)
- Room Builder clinical space planning
- S2-M004 drawing error