FEATURE ARTICLES

Paul Fenton MBE, CEng, FIHEEM, a highly experienced estates and facilities professional and Chartered Engineer who has worked across both the NHS and commercial sectors in a varied 40-year career, took over as IHEEM's new President in December.

As global healthcare systems recover and learn from the effects of COVID-19, the focus is increasingly on creating more resilient estates for the future.

Since the start of the pandemic, NHS Trusts have experienced significant concerns around oxygen system deficiencies, especially with the increased use of high flow oxygen devices such as ventilators, and the significant increase in ICU beds.

Heidi Barnard, Group head of Sustainability at The Northern Care Alliance NHS Group of hospitals and community services in Greater Manchester, describes the organisation’s journey towards Net Zero Carbon.

A look at a collaborative project to determine whether the hospital oxygen (O2) infrastructure in the UK had sufficient capacity to supply the rapidly rising number of COVID-19 patients.

Eric Thomas, a former head of Environmental Management and Engineering, and Guto Owen, discuss the potential for wider adoption of hydrogen fuel cell technology as a source of power in NHS buildings, and in associated transport applications.

There are many factors to consider when dealing with sound and vibration in and around hospital sites.

Dr Susanne Surman-Lee, and George McCracken, head of Estates Risk and Environment at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, take an in-depth look at some of the challenges and complexities of maintaining safe and hygienic healthcare water systems.

A major new hospital that will transform cancer care in a region that is one of the worst affected nationally by the disease opened its doors in the heart of Liverpool last June

This month will see the Italian Society for Healthcare Architecture and Engineering (SIAIS ) host the 26th IFHE 2020, themed ‘Global Climate Action Energy Requirements'

The last six months have provided a unique opportunity to review current behaviour, evaluate best practice, and reconsider hygiene in healthcare facilities.

Kristen Guida, Manager at the London Climate Change Partnership, explores some of the benefits to healthcare facilities of Sustainable Drainage Systems, particularly in better rainwater and surface water management

Three Kemper personnel consider common challenges in maintaining healthcare water supplies at a safe temperature, and in a safe and hygienic condition, that minimises the risk of growth and proliferation of potentially hazardous waterborne pathogens.

Jimmy Walker, a water hygiene and safety consultant, and consultant medical microbiologist, Dr Mike Weinbren, discuss best practice in keeping hospital water supplies safe, clean, and hygienic, and minimising the risk of waterborne bacteria.

Since 2013, Advanced Oncotherapy has pioneered the LIGHT system – described by the company as ‘a breakthrough in proton beam therapy that is transforming radiotherapy’.

Over the past year Apollo Fire Detectors has undertaken a thorough market research investigation into fire safety within the healthcare industry in the UK, led by head of Marketing, Irina Cruse, and her colleague, graduate project leader, Harry Buck.

A software system which helps heating and cooling system designers make more accurate engineering calculations using ‘dynamic simulation’ to show how their installation will perform under ‘real-world’ conditions.

‘Flushing water systems could save lives, waste money, cause fatalities, or be illegal’. By the time one has resorted to flushing it may be at worst ‘failure’, or, at best, ‘a necessary evil’.

Electrical safety and clinical care equipment specialist, Bender UK, has supplied critical power infrastructure valued at over £2 m to The Grange University Hospital, and is one of the highest-profile new healthcare facilities ever built in Wales.

The Fire Safety advisor at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has praised a software system that enables closer, more effective control of the Trust’s Fire Warden network.