RECENT FEATURE ARTICLES
Passive design principles a feature at Hillside Clinic
A clinic in South Africa’s Western Cape in an arid climactic zone that serves a local population battling for financial survival has been built with an emphasis on balancing reduced energy consumption with acceptable indoor temperatures.- Feature
‘Can do’ spirit from London Nightingale FM team
Craig Smith, FIH, MRIPH, head of Corporate Affairs at ISS, and National Chair of the Hospital Caterers Association, explains how ISS Healthcare addressed the challenge of being invited to provide the overall soft FM lead at the new NHS Nightingale Hospital London in the capital’s Docklands.- Feature
Placemaking to address UK’s ‘health inequality crisis’
Paul Kelly, director for Strategic Advisory at Mace, argues that to ease pressures on the health service, and ensure greater health equality across society, government, healthcare providers, and the private sector across the UK, will need to work more closely together, moving towards a multi-agency approach to ‘placemaking’ and the promotion of wellbeing.- Feature
Theatre project boosts capacity and creates jobs
The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham has recently opened the first phase of a major theatre expansion using volumetric modular building technology.- Feature
Collaborative approach helps Trust transform estate
Darren Laybourn, director, Strategic lead, Newcastle and Teesside, and Global head of Healthcare for construction company, Turner & Townsend, explains how a partnership approach involving close collaborative working between all the key supply chain players involved has helped mental health Trust, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, ‘transform its estate against a patient-centric vision for excellence’ over the past 14 years, in the process successfully delivering on its ambition to provide care to its service-users in truly fit-for-purpose 21st-century buildings.- Feature
Trust targets 100 per cent flushing compliance
A software system that automatically emails hundreds of clinical and non-clinical staff across the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust’s three hospitals requesting confirmation that low-use toilets, showers, and taps have been regularly flushed in line with HTM 04-01 guidance, is reducing the risk of biofilm build-up, and thus of Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonisation, with, on average, a 95-97 per cent flushing compliance.- Feature
A potential killer beneath our feet
Brian Back, HND, BEng (Hons), CEng, FIET, founder of the Zero Pollution Network – a ‘network of solution providers that aim both to tackle aquatic pollution, climate change, and sustainability issues, and to improve Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainable Governance’, who is also CEO and CTO of radio telemetry specialist, Radio Data Networks, discusses the significant health risks to patients, staff, and visitors, from blocked sewers and drains in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. He highlights some of the key technologies for detecting such issues before they become a major problem.- Feature
Examining ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of silver-based biocides
According to Altro, ‘recent years have seen the arguments for and against the use of biocides intensify, with some pro-biocide organisations making bolder claims than ever before’. Here Lucy Bilotto, European Marketing manager at Altro, outlines the flooring and wall cladding manufacturer’s concerns that ‘in the absence of firm evidence to support these claims’, there are concerns that these additives may be having no positive impact on infection control.- Feature
Dispelling some myths around copper silver
Joris Post, director at Dutch-headquartered specialist in copper silver ionisation, ATECA, says he is passionate about the safety of water systems in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.- Feature
Collaboration enhances system management
Daniel Pitcher, managing director at the Water Hygiene Centre, describes how the Wye Valley NHS Trust and its PFI partner, Sodexo, worked together to significantly improve the safe and efficient management of the water system at Hereford County Hospital, enhancing existing monitoring and review systems, and making key data available to those who require it – such as Water Safety Group members – in a more accessible format.- Feature
Autonomous running may soon be a reality
At a meeting last September at Chesham-based medical gas system specialist, SHJ, key personnel explained to HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, how the company is increasingly harnessing AI, IOT, and edge computing to enhance its systems to run and fault-find almost autonomously, feeding back fault data instantly should plant begin running sub-optimally, and taking remedial action to restore full performance, often without the need for human intervention.- Feature
Streamlining operations and boosting efficiencies
With increasing pressures on healthcare services, it has become ‘routine’ that changes are made to bring about cost savings whilst still maintaining the quality of patient care.- Feature
A sound answer to excess noise in hospitals
The debate around healthcare funding is very topical, but how could hospital managers better spend their NHS estate money to benefit patients and staff? Andrea Harman, Concept developer for Healthcare at Ecophon, discusses the value – in terms of tangible patient benefits – of investing in acoustic ceiling solutions.- Feature
A ‘zero-cost solution’ for managing disused property
With hospital closures ‘happening up and down the country’, preventing once functioning healthcare buildings from falling into dilapidation is crucial, argues Rogier Donkersloot, managing director of international ‘property guardian’ organisation, DEX Property Management.- Feature
Temporary power systems’ pre-emptive role
Craig Fleming, Sector leader for NHS & Government Services at Aggreko, discusses how temporary power solutions ‘can alleviate pressure on a beleaguered NHS estate while also helping it to meet longer-term sustainability targets’.- Feature
Certification, performance, and flexibility to consider
David Hindle, head of Door Closer Sales at Assa Abloy Opening Solutions UK & Ireland, discusses the main considerations for healthcare estates teams when specifying new door closers for a site, covering key issues such as certification, performance, and flexibility.- Feature
A collaborative approach on complex schemes
As refurbishments occupy a bigger proportion of the healthcare construction landscape, sensitive handling of works is more important than ever, and supplier relationships built on trust are essential, argues Chris Murphy, head of Operations at property maintenance and development specialist, Novus.- Feature
Nurse and personal attack alarm systems – a review
Richard Gibson, Technical director at Pinpoint, takes a look at some of the broad range of personal staff attack alarm systems now on the market, and considers the ‘pros and cons’ of some of the main technologies.- Feature
Coastal protection from an air-handling perspective
David Livingstone, a Chartered Engineer, and the managing director of DRLC, Consulting Engineers, discusses some of the key considerations for healthcare engineers to ensure that the performance of air-handling units in hospitals located in coastal areas is not compromised by corrosion created by the increased concentration of salt in the local atmosphere.- Feature
Maintaining supply in the event of flood or drought
Speaking at a climate change-themed IHEEM Regional Conference in Cardiff, Oswyn Parry, a training consultant at Airewater Associates, and a former Yorkshire Water microbiologist, gave an interesting address on ‘The effect of drought and flooding on drinking water quality’.- Feature
