FEATURE ARTICLES

Allan Jackson, Southern Healthcare manager at Power Control, takes a look at the vital role of isolated and uninterruptible power supplies in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and discusses some of the most important steps to maintaining them for optimal, reliable operation.

With the ever-changing landscape of requirements, regulations, and engineering practice within healthcare, Michael Ell, Medical Gas Portfolio manager, and Mark Williams, lead medical gas trainer, both of Eastwood Park Training, explain why practical training, building on theoretical knowledge, is key to gaining competency in the specialist field of medical gas pipeline systems.

Gavin Statham, Regional director, and Mike Robinson, BIM manager, BES, explain some of the many benefits, both to design and construction teams involved in healthcare projects, and the operators and users of healthcare buildings, of effective deployment of BIM technology

Against the backdrop of continuing concerns over global warming, Geoff Southern, associate director, Buildings, and Out-of-hospital Care lead (UK) at Arcadis IBI Group, considers some of the key potential ways to make healthcare buildings more adaptable and resilient to climate extremes, and to reduce the environmental impact of both the facilities themselves, and the plant and equipment needed to keep them fully functional, providing optimal care, day in, day out.

Jonathan Clapp, International senior technical manager at Microban International, looks at how antimicrobial technologies can be built into the various materials typically found in patient areas – including disposable privacy curtains, uniforms, and high-touch control panels – at the time of manufacture, complementing traditional cleaning in the fight against microbial growth and proliferation.

Three senior personnel at public service consultants, The PSC, discuss the NHP’s announcement that all new English hospitals must be 100% single room.

The New Hospital Programme (NHP) has been tasked with transforming and modernising NHS healthcare facilities in England. The team behind it dubs it ‘a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink our approach to the NHS’.

Paul Millard, Technical manager at Water Regs UK, looks at some of the key ways to reduce water consumption and waste in healthcare facilities, while maintaining a safe and wholesome supply, as well as some of the potential pitfalls and unintended consequences if water-saving measures are not implemented with sufficient thought, care, and expertise.

At the Central Sterilising Club’s Autumn Study Day, Paul Chivers, who leads the PPE Innovation and Sustainability Team for NHS Supply Chain, described its work to encourage development of more reusable PPE, and improve the sustainability and efficacy of such products already in use.

Rohit Sharma, Resilient Sales manager at Bona – which provides ‘sustainable, high-performance products and systems for resilient flooring in healthcare settings’ discusses the advantages of floor refurbishment over replacement in healthcare facilities

BioClad, which manufactures and supplies bespoke IPS units, and also supplies hygienic and antimicrobial cladding to the healthcare, pharma, education, retail, hospitality, and commercial sectors, has established its first in-house IPS manufacturing unit in a new York facility, and – to ensure a more efficient supply – brought under one roof distribution of its wall cladding at a new Harrogate depot.

Paul Bell, a Partner at Ryder Architecture, discusses successfully delivering major healthcare projects in the context of post-Brexit labour shortages, post-pandemic material supply, and the escalating climate emergency – a challenge that he says ‘requires fresh thinking’.

Mike Dunne, Service and Aftersales Technical manager at Howorth Air Technology, discusses the company’s establishment and running of a dedicated CPD-accredited Ventilation Workshop designed to help contractors and engineers ‘fully understand the specific and detailed requirements of ventilation systems’.

Ian Ellis, a ‘smart buildings’ specialist at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, explains why recent years’ heatwaves in the UK point to a new challenge – simultaneously mitigating the effects of climate change while dealing with the root cause of carbon emissions.

An Electrical Design engineer at Mott MacDonald discusses his research as part of a Master’s degree to understand the challenges the NHS faces to improve its electrical resilience, focusing particularly on microgrids and battery energy storage.

Karina Jones, an IHEEM-registered Authorising Engineer (Water), and member of the Institute’s Water Technical Platform, considers some of the most prevalent hazardous waterborne bacteria found in healthcare premises, and the key steps to keep their growth and transmission in check.

Under Prime Minister, Sanna Marin’s 2019 Government Programme, Finland will be carbon-neutral by 2035, a goal requiring both faster reduction of emissions in all sectors, and strengthening of national carbon sinks. In this article, Leena Setälä, Sustainability director of the Hospital District of Southwestern Finland, sets out her vision for a ‘roadmap’ to reduce carbon emissions in the healthcare sector.

Hospitals aren’t just another building; rather they are ‘a processing facility in which lives are being saved daily’ – this requires reliability and energy. So say James Moyes, Simon Witts, M.AIRAH, and Broden Kay of Australian STEM consultancy, VA Sciences, who argue that, as a result, ‘we should stop bundling them in with other building types when it comes to talking about green buildings’.

The sound and acoustics generated in healthcare settings have a major impact on both patients and staff. With sound levels increasing, Andrea Harman, from Saint-Gobain Ecophon, discusses some of the main considerations in creating a quieter, more calming, recovery environment.

Tony Wells, Chief Executive Officer of Merit, a specialist in offsite manufacture and build of ‘hi-tech’ facilities for healthcare, laboratory, cleanroom, manufacturing, and other industrial environments, discusses some of the key time, other practical, and cost-saving benefits of this approach, drawing on some of the company’s recent projects in healthcare