FEATURE ARTICLES

Fire safety is a huge concern for hospitals, which rely on running smoothly to keep waiting times to a minimum and ensure that patients, staff, and visitors, are safe. However, as such facilities continue to evolve, they can face a growing number of new fire safety challenges, with advances in technology and demand for better services placing a heavy reliance on cables to keep equipment and their supporting infrastructure running safely. Paul Gretton, lead marketing manager – Cable Management, at Legrand UK & Ireland, explains why using effective and future-proof firestopping in healthcare environments is crucial.

Effective use of technology can significantly impact the design and day-to-day running of NHS estates, with the power to make buildings more efficient, create income generation opportunities, and help ‘future-proof’ the estate long-term

Senior estates and facilities staff from the NHS Estates and Facilities Efficiency and Productivity Division at NHSI led a well-attended seminar on workforce planning in Birmingham in April. The event brought together senior healthcare estates directors from over 30 NHS Trusts, and representatives of IHEEM, HefmA, and IPEM, to discuss key succession and skills gap issues facing the sector.

The COBS personal security range of products is now available from Atus Systems, strengthening its range of both personal and staff security solutions.

The head of Manufacturing and Innovation at offsite specialist, The McAvoy Group, looks at the latest techniques for digitising construction, and at ‘how the new technology is taking offsite construction to the next level’.

Clean, hot water is vital to combating infections in hospitals, but when the water supply itself is at risk, what are the options? Teal Patents, which specialises in providing hot water handwashing facilities without mains water supply or drainage, explains how to maintain high hand hygiene standards when the water supply has been compromised.

Steve Hunt, managing director of Steven A Hunt & Associates, discusses the need for hospitals and industry experts to stay up-to-date with technology to help tackle the issue of Legionella developing in ‘ill-equipped’ domestic water systems.

Three years after moving into a considerably larger and more modern Bournemouth office and factory complex, wireless nurse call specialist, Courtney-Thorne, is enjoying the benefits, and is increasingly focusing on making its systems ‘future-proof’.

How – as part of a major development project at the charitable Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth in London – a leading tap, washroom fitting, and sanitaryware manufacturer has worked closely with the hospital’s Estates Management team on the roll-out of sensor washbasin mixer and shower products, and a look at the resulting benefits.

In mid-2010 the Estates Maintenance Team at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust embarked on a £30 million, five-year project to significantly enhance the resilience and block capacity of the electrical distribution infrastructure at St James’s University Hospital, one of the Yorkshire city’s two main acute healthcare facilities.

In an article that first appeared in the IHEA’s Healthcare Facilities magazine, a look, by an Australian air filtration specialist, at some of the key considerations for the effective design of operating theatre ventilation systems.

Having started life in 1973 as a panel bonding and worktop manufacturer, Dorset-headquartered Total Laminate Systems (TLS) has grown into one of the UK’s leading manufacturers, suppliers, and installers, of sanitary assemblies, IPS panels, and washroom systems to the healthcare, education, commercial, and leisure sectors.

Richard Leigh, Business Development director at commercial and domestic drains specialist, Lanes Group,says the sector needs to work hard to improve awareness among healthcare professionals - no matter what their role – of the potential dangers posed by drainage emergencies in healthcare facilities, and how to avoid them.

Healthcare Facilities Consortium (HFC) non-executive director, Jane Riley, explains how the HFS has recently launched FM Knowledge Exchange (FMKx), a set of online tools designed to encourage collaboration and communication between healthcare organisations and estates professionals, as well as their product and service suppliers.

Keeping the water supply safe is an integral part of hospital hygiene and infection prevention. To minimise contamination risks, explains Julie Spinks, managing director of WRAS, healthcare estates teams need to be fully aware of their regulatory responsibilities, rigorously apply risk management, use compliant products, and employ approved contractors.

A significant number of critical healthcare applications rely on precise temperature control – from theatres and wards to MRI scanners and even mortuaries. If disaster strikes and a temperature control system fails, being able to rely on a pre-arranged contingency plan for both chillers and boilers can be the difference between hours and weeks of downtime. Russ Baker, director UK – Hire, at ICS Cool Energy, explains.

Lawrence Crompton and Chris More of Siemens, and Regional Partner at DSSR, Derek Jolley, describe a project to replace the electrical emergency power system at a large acute hospital.

With IHEEM celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year, HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, looks back at the Institute’s beginnings, its early and continuing goals, and some of the key milestones in its history, beginning with the first meeting at City Hospital Nottingham in August 1943. He draws on a variety of interesting archive material recently uncovered by members of the head office team.

Wandsworth Group claims ‘unrivalled expertise in the healthcare sector, with over 60 years’ experience supplying to the UK and overseas healthcare markets’.

Regular refurbishment of operating theatres is key to ensuring a truly fitfor-purpose 21st century surgical environment, yet estates teams must balance the need for periods of theatre closure with maintaining operational delivery and minimising disruption to patient flow.