FEATURE ARTICLES

Dave Hewitt, Sales & Marketing director at Courtney Thorne, considers some of the key selection criteria when choosing personal safety alarm systems for healthcare environments housing patients with more complex needs – including assessing the risks that such patients present, and their own particular needs. Increasingly, he explains, technologies from different types of equipment are converging – to the user’s benefit.

A leading independent supplier of process filtration and water treatment products discusses its expertise, and explains how its recent creation of five new business dedicated ‘channnels’ should enhance its business and sales focus to a claimed 4,500 customers – including healthcare engineering teams – across the UK and Europe.

A senior project manager at Essentia Trading reports on the built environment and estates consultancy’s project management of two recently completed contrasting and challenging refurbishment projects involving children’s facilities at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

An Authorising Engineer for specialist ventilation and water quality discusses the threats to health, and especially to immunocompromised patients, posed by Cryptococcus, a fungus he believes is not especially well understood in healthcare engineering circles

Eur.Ing David Cooper, MD of UK-based independent lift consultants, LECS (UK), considers what he dubs ‘the heavy load of documentation, legal obligations, and standards to be reached at the varying stages in the lifecycle’ of a lift within the healthcare setting, and ‘when to ease the headache with independent engineering advice’.

Healthcare Facilities Management 2019, a one-day event being held on 12 June in Solihull combining a topical conference with a wide-ranging exhibition, will cover topics ranging from cleaning standards and transport/ car parking in healthcare facilities, to managing food waste, fire safety, and security.

A specialist in the hire and sale of chillers and boiler hire, and the provision of smaller temporary HVAC units, considers some of the key challenges posed by the F-Gas Regulation, and highlights the importance of forward planning when considering the mobilisation of chillers and boilers in healthcare settings.

With its Pseudalert rapid microbiology technology for P. aeruginosa in water supplies now well-established in healthcare, IDEXX Water is now working hard to promote what it says is a ‘highly accurate, sensitive, and specific’ test to identify levels of Legionella pneumophila, with definitive results in just seven days.

Develop Training is celebrating after electricians on its courses achieved a 94 per cent pass rate against the latest national wiring standard.

When it comes to emergency incidents, hospitals and healthcare facilities often provide a safe haven for those in need of critical care. However, such premises are not immune to their own crises, and need to have adequate, well maintained and suitable emergency lighting in place at all times.

Corby-based Creative Ironmongery specialises in ‘designing and creating problem-solving products that save money and deliver exceptional performance, even in the most challenging environments’. It claims to be ‘revolutionising standards in architectural ironmongery’.

When specifying products for healthcare facilities there are a wide range of factors to consider – from eliminating water wastage and cutting utility costs, to reducing maintenance and managing infection control.

A British commercial boiler manufacturer looks at the key considerations for designing ‘safe, reliable, and efficient’ hot water systems for healthcare facilities, and at minimising the major risk factors for the growth and proliferation of harmful waterborne bacteria within them.

With the NHS facing pressure to cut costs and improve efficiency, the head of Healthcare Business Development at Centrica Business Solutions examines ‘how innovative energy systems could drive change and make a lasting difference’.

Westwood Care and Support Group has completed the internal refurbishment and reconfiguration of two buildings on the former Huntercombe mental healthcare site at Market Weighton, providing purpose-designed units – one for residential, and one for respite care – for patients with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) and complex physical needs. HEJ reports.

Sharron Kapellar, National Framework manager at Forbo Flooring Systems, discusses what she dubs ‘the change in healthcare design’, and explains how well-considered flooring specifications, and the optimal flooring selection, can contribute to a healing environment.

Dr Melvyn Langford, who worked for nearly four decades in the NHS, including as an estates and facilities manager, discusses – using mathematical computations – the factors that have long convinced him that there is ‘a fundamental flaw’ within the ‘5x5 risk matrix’ used to establish the relative urgency of backlog maintenance in NHS healthcare facilities.

Authorising Engineers (AEs) have a key role to play in ensuring the safe, efficient management and operation of key plant, equipment, and systems in a range of engineering disciplines in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, in accordance with key HTM and other guidance, and legislation.

Clare Tattersall, editor of the CHES magazine, Canadian Healthcare Facilities, examines the wide-ranging measures that staff at the Markham Stouffville Hospital in Markham, Ontario, have taken to raise the healthcare facility’s environmental performance and sustainability credentials since it opened nearly three decades ago.

Darryl Pitcher, who took over as the IFHE’s President from Douwe Kiestra at the event, reports on a highly successful 25th IFHE Congress held in Brisbane last October, where, in addition to the human attendees, the venue – Brisbane City Hall – also welcomed a variety of Australia’s wildlife.