FEATURE ARTICLES

Rina Pandya, head of People Transformation and Culture at NHS Property Services, discusses the importance of promoting the success of women in healthcare estates and facilities management – traditionally a male-dominated sector.

The risks posed to patients from pathogens found in hospital environments, and the need for those tasked with cleaning them to be adequately trained, and equipped with the latest technology, are highlighted by Dr Mark Garvey, consultant clinical scientist in Microbiology.

Bobby Conroy, Architect director at BDP’s Dublin studio, describes how the design of Ireland’s New Children’s Hospital has been developed around a ‘child and family-centred identity’, and explains how standardisation and digital technology have played a central role in the delivery of the project.

At IHEEM’s 2022 Authorising Engineers conference, Brian Kirk, from the Institute’s Decontamination Technical Platform, and Paul Harris, Chair of the IHEEM Electrical Technical Platform, looked at the evolution of standards within healthcare engineering and estate management.

The Final of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s national Faraday Challenge – an annual competition to encourage more youngsters to study and consider STEM careers – took place at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in June, with IHEEM as the year’s ‘theme partner’.

A look by Australian academics and a plumbing and safety equipment specialist at some of the risks to hospital plumbing systems from both lead contamination and the build-up and spread of opportunistic waterborne pathogens

Gregor Riese of the Opira Group discusses the effectiveness of ultraviolet airstream disinfection in healthcare facilities, drawing on a study at a hospital in Pennsylvania which demonstrated a more than 90% reduction in airborne and surface pathogen levels in UV-treated zones compared with non-UV treated zones.

The importance of your emergency lighting system should not be underestimated. Simply put, lives depend on it – but how can you be sure your system will perform when it’s most needed?

Edward Williams of Edward Williams Architects, and Sheila Carney, director of Scott Tallon Walker Architects, discuss designing the NHS in England’s second proton beam therapy centre, for University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in a central London location – close to existing infrastructure such as ‘tube’ lines – and explain how the major challenges were overcome.

Modular building provider, Wernick, has completed a new 72-bed building at Queen Alexandra Hospital for Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust. Providing urgently needed treatment and recovery areas, the £8.2 m building took just 28 weeks to complete, from design to handover.

Maintaining hygiene in hospitals has never been a higher priority, due to COVID-19. Fortunately, there are a number of technologies that are helping medical staff fight back against infectious agents and help safeguard against future global pandemics, explains John Chewins, director of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at Bioquell.

A three-week timescale to create, construct, and fully fit out a surge hub in a hospital car park is a pretty daunting prospect. Five senior team members involved in such a project at a Lancashire acute Trust explain how this was achieved at the Royal Preston Hospital.

A major project to decarbonise North Tyneside General Hospital is well under way, with the aim of reducing its emissions by 80 per cent. Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s ‘commitment to taking concrete, meaningful action’ to reduce its environmental impact will see the hospital’s steam system replaced

Healthcare providers are using digital signage and IPTV systems to manage ongoing COVID challenges, and subsequently recognising how AV systems can improve the patient experience, says Colin Farquhar, senior vice-president, Sales, at VITEC, a specialist in end-to-end video streaming.

The National Fire Safety lead at NHSE/I explains how NHS Trusts can review their fire alarm systems and implement effective protocols to ensure that risk reduction in this area meets statutory requirements.

In March 2021 John Prendergast, MIHEEM, an Authorising Engineer (Decontamination), and Dr Jimmy Walker, Chair of the Central Sterilising Club, established, and have since led, a Working Group to review guidance for ventilation requirements in endoscope decontamination facilities.

IHEEM-registered AE (Water), Steve Mount, reviews the recently produced British Standard for risk assessment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other waterborne pathogens in healthcare premises, and the challenges facing organisations in complying with it.

Starkstrom has its UK office and manufacturing facility in Syston, Leicester. The company is in its 51st year of offering integrated solutions for the design, supply, installation, and commissioning, of electrical safety solutions for Group 2 medical locations, and infrastructure and clinical products to NHS and private hospitals for operating theatres and ‘Recovery’, Critical Care, Emergency Departments, Endoscopy, and training facilities.

Jo Harris, Commercial Finance UK Sales director, Siemens Financial Services in the UK, discusses some of the benefits to both to occupiers and users of increasingly ‘smart’ healthcare buildings, and the role of ‘smart financing’ in their construction and operation.

As specifications are passed down lengthy chains, sometimes the intent can be lost. Adam Fox, director at vibration isolation specialist, Mason UK, offers three key principles for writing a good specification.