FEATURE ARTICLES

Mathew Hopwood, Sales director at Mansfield Pollard, explores the evolving role of HTM 03-01 in healthcare ventilation. He argues for a more structured approach to compliance, acknowledges industry resistance, and calls for closer collaboration between manufacturers and industry bodies like IHEEM to ensure safer, more consistent air management across healthcare estates.

Poorly designed healthcare environments can fuel infection and compromise patient safety. Richard Thomas, Managing director at Hygenius, examines how smarter furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) choices, from seamless surfaces to robust storage, can cut infection risk and improve patient outcomes.

The dangers of smoke inhalation during a fire cannot be overstated, says Tom Merton, Technical manager at fire protection solutions provider Armacell. Around 95 per cent of fire-related fatalities result from toxic smoke rather than burns, which means it is imperative for specifiers to take proactive measures to prepare for potential fire emergencies. Here, he investigates how the development of new insulation materials is helping to create a safer, more energy efficient healthcare environment.

Operating theatres are high-risk spaces and are therefore tightly controlled, and demand the highest standards of sterility. Yet one vital element of safety is too often underestimated – the air itself. Sanathoi Bachaspatimayum, Marketing & PR assistant at Smart Air UK, explores why filtration must sit alongside ventilation as a core safeguard for patients and staff.

Martin Heaward, UK head of Sales of Projects and Specifications at Gewiss, explains the consequences of relying on a product-first approach for a healthcare facility’s electrical infrastructure. He outlines the importance for those responsible for healthcare estates of working alongside electrical partners who can help them see the bigger picture, and create high-performing, effective and resilient solutions which meet their current and future needs.

Ross Giles, Business leader for Trane UK, considers some of the innovations in heating and cooling that offer hospitals a wide array of mechanisms to decarbonise their buildings while simultaneously reducing operating costs.

Smoke control systems play a vital role in ensuring the safety of occupants in the event of a fire, limiting smoke ingress in evacuation routes to provide time for staff and potentially vulnerable patients to be safely evacuated where necessary, allowing firefighters access to the source of the fire and potentially helping to limit the extent and cost of damage to estates. A proactive schedule of inspection and maintenance is essential to ensure these systems are functioning correctly and represents a key legal requirement for estates managers, says Conor Logan, Technical director at Colt International.

Gordon Stirling, Sector director of Health at Tilbury Douglas, explains how construction can assist the NHS with its focus on ‘preventing sickness rather than focusing on the cure’.

Mica Moore, a Business Support manager at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, who last year spent four weeks working in hospitals in Greece as part of a European exchange programme that offers healthcare professionals the chance to share learnings and experiences, outlines some of the key benefits. Most recently, she explains, two overseas healthcare professionals – from Poland and Spain, were hosted under the programme by Vital Services, a wholly owned Trust subsidiary for which she works.

In this whitepaper, WB Power Services Business consultant, Geoff Halliday, considers the priorities for regular maintenance testing of generating sets and their associated exhaust aftertreatment equipment.

NHS capital, estates and facilities teams are juggling ageing infrastructure, tightening budgets, and rising regulatory expectations. Here, Dr Carl-Magnus von Behr, co-founder and director of CompliMind (formerly Innex.AI), brings together two practitioner perspectives on the practical role of AI in everyday estates work. Paul Luxton, head of Acute Estates and Infrastructure at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, shows how AI can bring clarity and consistency to policy reviews. Paul Boocock, director of Estates and Facilities at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, reflects on how the same tools can support efficiency, governance, and workforce development at scale.

Addressing the sizeable NHS maintenance backlog is driving the need for service partnerships that provide insight to support uptime and map out a path to modernisation and Net Zero, says Kas Mohammed, VP of Services for the UK and Ireland at Schneider Electric.

Clarke Haydon, Managing director at Raybloc, a specialist manufacturer and installer of X-ray protection products, explains how – from small beginnings – the past quarter of a century has seen the company evolve and develop its range, highlights some of its recent successes, and focuses on the features that make its products and technology stand out – with contributions from some of the business’s key personnel.

Matt Etherington, Public Sector Workplace specialist at Matrix Booking, explores how data-driven insights can help organisations balance occupancy levels and adapt to changing work patterns.

Liam Nevins TIFireE, Product Technical manager – Fire Protection at Trox UK, highlights the importance of healthcare estates and facilities teams making sure that all fire dampers across their estate are maintained in efficient working order, both to ensure the safety of all their buildings’ users, and to meet regulatory requirements. He also outlines some of the additional requirements imposed in this area by the Building Safety Act 2022.

For the NHS to achieve Net Zero by 2040, hospitals must re-think their approach to heating and cooling. By adopting integrated, data-driven energy solutions, NHS estates can significantly cut carbon emissions while improving patient comfort and operational efficiency. Here, Graham Smith, Commercial director UK&I at Carrier Commercial HVAC, explores the role of heat pumps and heat networks in decarbonising NHS facilities, addressing both the technical challenges, and the opportunities they present.

Nigel Booen, director of Design at multi-skilled planning consultancy, Boyer (part of Leaders Romans Group), discusses the growing potential to adapt empty or underutilised high street premises for healthcare use, and sets out a number of key architectural considerations when converting a building for this purpose.

The NHS is transforming how it delivers healthcare across the UK, with ambitious plans to establish a nationwide network of community health centres – bringing essential medical services closer to local communities. These community health hubs will provide a range of primary care services under one roof – from GP consultations to diagnostic testing and mental health support. Tony Huggins, managing director at David Bailey Furniture Systems, examines fitted furniture’s role in maintaining infection control in such settings, as well as creating an efficient, conducive, and appealing patient and staff environment.

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria is a persistent bacterium that poses a significant risk in augmented care facilities. Carole Armstrong, Senior Marketing and Communications manager at Aquatools in the UK, considers the role of design in healthcare facilities to reduce this risk at the specification stage, and how to maintain water quality within an operational facility. She takes a closer look at point-of-use filters as a secondary barrier, and the technology behind the solution.

As the saying goes, ‘when you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp’. For NHS estates teams, that tension between firefighting and long-term planning is all too familiar. In this article, Paul Mercer, Stephen Wright, Suzanne MacCormick and Anisha Mayor explore how the Strategic Estates Management Advisory Platform (SEMAP) is helping professionals look beyond the day-to-day, tackling issues from PFI handbacks to digital transformation, and healthcare planning with a strategic lens.