FEATURE ARTICLES

IDEXX’s Nigel Otter discusses Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust’s successful use of the company’s rapid microbiology systems to test for, and identify, Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, ‘in-house’, in its water systems.

AA Projects’ Sarah Butler discusses a new NHS England resource which aims to show how the NHS can use and manage its estate ‘as a catalyst to boost social value, address local priorities, and enhance the wider determinants of health’.

Visiting PPL Training’s York HQ, HEJ discovered what led it to begin covering key fire safety topics such as fire-stopping and fire door survey and inspection.

Chris Oates, Architect director at BDP, explains how the latest cancer care facilities are enabling patients to be treated in increasingly personalised environments. Drawing on recent UK case studies, he also highlights the considerable advantages of co-locating specialist cancer treatment facilities, scientific research, and academic centres, on one site – both to medical personnel and scientists / academics.

A ‘Workforce’-themed keynote at 2022’s Healthcare Estates featured discussions on the key workforce challenges facing both the healthcare engineering and estate management sector, and the wider NHS.

Is it correct to assume that manual daily cleaning provides the best protection for people who use high-touch surfaces like door handles? In this article, Ian Graham, founder of Glana, and developer of the Axiene Clean Touch antimicrobial door handle system (HEJ – November 2021), describes the findings from hygiene performance trials comparing standard cleaning procedures with new Axiene technology

The NHS has a legacy of ageing properties, many with ventilation systems where it is not possible to gain access for effective cleaning or mandatory annual safety inspection and testing of fire dampers. This issue needs to be afforded much higher priority on risk registers, argues the MD of an independent ventilation, air, and water hygiene specialist.

At the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a new medical gas plant developed by SHJ Medical Gas Specialists has ‘addressed areas of energy inefficiency, vastly increased the system’s productivity, resilience, and reliability’, and aided carbon emission reduction.

A Net Zero and Sustainability keynote session at Healthcare Estates 2022 included an interesting and somewhat chastening look at the ‘size’ of the energy generation challenge facing the UK in the short-to-medium term by Dame Sue Ion, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering

At Healthcare Estates 2022, four scientists and academics discussed hospital ventilation – including some of the key learnings for hospital engineers in the wake of COVID-19. HEJ’s editor reports on an address by one of the four – Prof. Cath Noakes of the University of Leeds

The presentation of awards in 12 categories, plus the chance to make new acquaintances, and renew contacts faceto-face, were among the highlights of last month’s Healthcare Estates 2022 IHEEM Awards Dinner in Manchester.

Last month saw the Institute’s first ever female President, Alison Ryan, take over the chain of office at IHEEM’s 2022 AGM. She discusses her career to date, her involvement with IHEEM, her goals during her Presidency, and some of the areas where she believes the Institute can have even greater impact.

More and more modern hospitals now rely on medical telemetry systems for the smooth operation of the ICT and communications technologies that are critical to efficient patient care. Here electronic engineers, Tetsuo Endo, Takashi Kano, and Eisuke Hanada, give an overview of new guidelines for the use of such systems in Japanese hospitals.

Speaking at the IFHE’s 2022 Congress in Toronto, IHEEM’s CEO, Pete Sellars, and President, Paul Fenton, argued that the planning and construction of ‘siloed’ hospitals ‘is over’, discussing a very different model for future healthcare planning.

The recent Healthcare Estates 2022 Conference & Exhibition in Manchester marked the exclusive launch of the new ‘Medical Tap Filter Fixed Position’ product by T-safe, the Danish-based water filtration manufacturer.

Michelle Roe, Technical Healthcare specialist at water solution provider, Whitewater, discusses the impact that water quality has on hospital-acquired infections, and some of the key water treatment methods available to combat the growth and proliferation of harmful waterborne microorganisms.

Stephen Bartlett, an experienced information professional with considerable experience of resource planning, risk management, and healthcare estates management, considers how the updated HTM 03-01, Specialised ventilation for healthcare buildings can – as he puts it – be ‘a catalyst for continuous operational improvements and service transformation’.

Sarah Beaumont-Smith, CEO of Fulcrum Infrastructure Group, highlights the impressive way the primary care estate ‘flexed’ and demonstrated its adaptability during, and in the wake of, the COVID-19 pandemic. She believes that ‘what was done at great speed and out of necessity’ has ‘helped to change the mindset’ of how capacity in the primary care estate could be used over the longer term.

Dr Louise Webb, Project director, and David Butler, Authorising Engineer – Fire Safety, of DRLC, discuss the changes in fire safety brought about since the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, and some of the key legislation, standards, and guidance, in this key area for healthcare estates management teams to take note of.

Dr Thomas Bone-Winkel, founder and CEO of oji Europe, explains the potential impact the company believes its hypochlorous acid-based oji active air system could have in eradicating harmful airborne pathogens in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and thus significantly reducing the chances of infection for patients, staff, and visitors