FEATURE ARTICLES

Stephanie Allchurch, Product Development manager at Altecnic, discusses the importance of getting it right when it comes to products and procedures with water systems in healthcare settings. She focuses on some of the key components needed to ensure that water systems in such settings are as hygienic and safe as possible, particularly for vulnerable end-users.

The pandemic has further highlighted our concerns about the ‘health’ of our built environments. ‘Next generation’ building energy management technology can help, explains a senior Design partner – Healthcare, at Trend Control Systems.

Dr Céline Glipa, CEO of dynamic glass specialist, Eyrise, discusses how recent developments in glass technology ‘offer intelligent opportunities to re-shape the design of healthcare buildings’.

Neil Orpwood, head of Healthcare at architecture, landscape, and interior design practice, HLM, argues that healthcare needs to ‘take a more holistic view, creating healthy environments that champion local community care’.

Nick Keegan, an expert in building energy efficiency and energy performance contracting, and a director at EEVS, considers some effective approaches to ‘de-risking’ heating projects in the drive towards Net Zero.

A look at the work that went into the development of a ‘new generation’ drive through clinic, piloted in Birmingham during the pandemic, which allowed patients to simply drive in to see a doctor when conventional appointments were hard to get.

Mark Smith, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at NHS Property Services, explains how the company has been able to make valuable savings that are reinvested into the NHS.

Alex Solk, Partner and Healthcare lead at Sheppard Robson, argues that the next generation of hospital design should ‘learn from the office’s drive for wellness’. He believes that ‘wellness in the workplace is as vital to hospital design as it is to re-thinking our offices’.

Infection control is critical in healthcare environments to protect patients, visitors, and staff. Here Tim Checketts, head of Specification at dormakaba, discusses how the right door and access control solutions can help minimise the spread of germs, while still achieving the required accessibility, security, and safety.

Avensys has demonstrated its broad-ranging capabilities and expertise in the procurement, purchase, storage, supply, and installation of new medical devices, and the sale of surplus-to-requirements EBME equipment, in a £1 m contract recently successfully completed for not-for-profit healthcare provider, Healthcare Management Trust (HMT), at its new £25 m Sancta Maria Hospital in Swansea’s SA1 waterfront district.

HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, talks to Steve Parker, Operations manager at Marlux Medical, about the growth in demand for disposable privacy curtains during the pandemic, current best practice in curtain changing, and the latest technology developments that are helping to make disposable privacy curtains a more sustainable option for NHS Trusts.

James Minards, Country Sales manager for the UK and Ireland at healthcare business and data automation company, GHX, discusses the use of digital inventory management systems to improve stock control and the procurement of a variety of key items used by hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and the time, cost-saving, and efficiency benefits the technology can bring.

Declan Armour, managing director of Shanco Contracts, explains the importance of effective groundworks for modular builds, and how to avoid unnecessary costs and delays.

Tina Seymour, CEO at charity, Hope for Tomorrow, looks at how mobile cancer care units are supporting NHS Trusts, and ‘revolutionising how life-saving treatment is delivered to communities thanks to digital innovation’.

Dave Palmer from temperature control specialist, ICS Cool Energy, on some of the key heating and cooling demands on healthcare facilities, and on how these can be met in a sustainable and efficient way.

The UK construction sector is set to make Whole Life Carbon calculations integral to design decisions. Senior personnel from architectural practice, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, discuss the considerations faced by an NHS Trust.

Nick Barsby from T-safe UK, and Chair of the Legionella Control Association, and, Claire Jackson, an Authorising Engineer (Water), discuss work to address protracted Legionella colonisation in the water at a hospital in south-east England.

Andrew Poplett IEng, MIHEEM, an Authorising Engineer (W&V), on ensuring, with growing staff and skills shortages, that Authorising Engineers and Authorised Persons don’t face an unreasonable workload and burden of responsibility

Regina Kennedy, Healthcare Strategy and Planning director at ETL, argues that the presumption in government circles toward greater use of Modern Methods of Construction in healthcare projects calls for a different mindset and approach.

Mike Porter, describes a project at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital to replace obsolete low voltage air circuit breakers with retrofit variants, which will significantly extend the life of the existing switchboard