FEATURE ARTICLES

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

DRLC’s Project director, Dr Louise Webb, and MD David Livingstone, consider how to keep ventilation plant in healthcare facilities running reliably, and – with the drive towards Net Zero – efficiently and sustainably.

John Evans, Wandsworth Healthcare, explains how the company delivered a reliable alarm system for a surgical ward at Basildon University Hospital in Essex to instantly alert hospital staff to ventilator failure, removal, or misuse.

Fire safety has long been a high priority for healthcare estates teams, but has assumed ever greater prominence following 2017’s Grenfell Tower fire. Andrew Foolkes, Principal Fire engineer at Tenos, presented on ‘Fire Safety Management Competency’

IHEEM Registered AE (Water), Steve Mount, discusses, on behalf of the IHEEM Water Technical Platform, the current standard of Legionella risk assessments seen in the healthcare community.

IHEEM’s 2021 AGM saw President, Paul Fenton, report on a difficult year, while CEO, Pete Sellars, looked to plans for 2022. The winner of the 2021 IHEEM Lifetime Achievement Award was announced.

Hiroshi Yasuhara and Hidenao Atarashi, discuss their experience following 2011’s Great East Japan Earthquake, the key learnings, and how these have informed actions to further improve their hospitals’ preparedness for future natural disasters

Considering the challenges presented by COVID-19 worldwide, the IFHE’s European Group had another successful, and certainly eventful, year in 2021, reports its Treasurer, and IHEEM’s IFHE representative, David Whiteley

Dr Scott Brown CEng, CSci, MD, considers whether the existing HTM guidance on medical gas pipeline systems is due for review given advances in technology, changes in clinical practice, and ‘learnings from the Pandemic'

Paul Haycock, a Business Development manager with SUEZ Water Purification Technologies, discusses the latest water purification technologies for healthcare facilities.

With the Government committing to over £159 billion in core funding, and a further £22.4 bn in COVID-19 investment, in healthcare in 2022, there is a need for NHS Trusts to understand the condition of their estates, argues a Partner at RLB UK.

Julian McCamphill, Operations director at multidisciplinary building and engineering services provider, Dowds Group, gives his standpoint on the challenges facing M&E companies working on healthcare construction projects, both now and in the future.

iM Med, discusses the importance of a strategic approach to continuous best practice – demonstrated by recent work for University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust which implemented a complete decontamination strategy.

Bill Reeves BEng, MSc, CEng, MIET, MIHEEM, Electrical Infrastructure and AE at Eta Projects, explains the value of the electrical AE, and outlines the extensive duties that the role demands in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

Meeting ‘virtually’ on 23 November, members of the recently re-formed All-Party Parliamentary Group for Healthcare Infrastructure discussed how to ensure the UK’s healthcare infrastructure is fit for purpose for the future.

At the Healthcare Estates conference, consulting engineer, Malcolm Thomas, the main author of the 2021 version of HTM 03-01, Specialist Ventilation for Healthcare Premises, explained the background to, and aims behind, the HTM’s revision.

‘Do we know which hospital to build and why we’re doing it’ was a presentation by Stephen Wright, an independent consultant and Honorary Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, at October’s Healthcare Estates conference.

Craig Holmes at Dart Valley Systems, outlines a practical approach to the safe management of healthcare water systems to minimise the risk of Legionella colonisation, and in turn prevent patients from contracting Legionnaire’s disease.

Paul Godfrey, managing director at Puretech Water Systems (UK) considers the key benefits of reverse osmosis (RO) water as feedwater for boilers, and how its use in this context facilitates reducing boiler blowdown periods.