FEATURE ARTICLES

Geir Pedersen, head of the Project Management Department at Norway’s Haukeland University Hospital, explains how staff at the Bergen hospital have worked closely with Zanzibar’s largest hospital for the past six years to improve healthcare services there, providing considerable expertise and input.

Jonathan Waggott, an expert in sanitary infection control issues, asks whether, with evidence that hand hygiene and cleaning with disinfectants can no longer be entirely relied upon to safeguard patients against harmful bacteria, it is time to consider new approaches.

A senior team member at healthcare flooring specialist, Gerflor, and two associate directors at the architectural practices involved, discuss the award-winning Banbridge Health & Care Centre in Northern Ireland’s County Down, and the challenges of designing a healthcare facility ‘upheld as a benchmark of its type in Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.

Fire safety continues to a major topic of debate, particularly in hospitals that have had refurbishment carried out. The general manager at Horbury Property Services looks at fire risk assessments, and why it is essential that fire compartmentation is properly inspected during them.

With the government’s ambition to halve the number of Gram-negative bloodstream infections in the NHS by 2020, a washroom specialist explores what these plans look like ‘for those at the coalface’, and why ‘there has never been a better time to invest in infection control’.

Over the past four decades the delivery of estates and facilities management services to NHS Trusts has evolved considerably. A look at this changing scene, and at an emerging ‘Estates Integrator’ model.

Fast-track modular building specialist and turnkey construction company, MTX, recently completed its fastest modular new-build project yet – completing a new modular orthopaedic surgery and rheumatology outpatient unit at Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital in just 12 weeks from order to handover.

The latest addition to Static Systems’ Design & Innovation Centre at its Staffordshire headquarters is a ‘pioneering’ new Concept Ward, developed with the help, support, and input, of suppliers of a wide range of different products and technologies.

Last June’s Grenfell Tower fire will sadly be remembered for many years. Speaking in a timely address at October’s Healthcare Estates 2017 conference, Phil Gibbs, Healthcare Partnerships officer at London Fire Brigade, took a broad-ranging look at ‘Cladding on hospital premises’.

Institute members, Past-Presidents, Committee members, Company Affiliates, and healthcare estates and facilities personnel from across the UK, were among attendees at an IHEEM seminar, awards ceremony, and President’s Address in London on 30 November.

As part of a special IHEEM event held in Westminster late last year, IHEEM’s President updated guests on progress with the five ‘key themes’ he had set out for his Presidency on taking up the role the previous October.

An independent consultant, Authorising Engineer in ventilation/water and pressure systems, and Eastwood Park trainer, discusses the importance of HVAC systems in healthcare facilities, and equally, the need for good training on such plant for healthcare engineering and healthcare estates management personnel.

The WHO has identified failure of waste management as a serious issue for healthcare facilities to tackle. James Lee, managing director of clinical and healthcare waste sack supplier, Cromwell Polythene, looks at what can be done to tackle this.

Tom Makin BSc Hons, MWMSoc, discusses a pilot study at a large teaching hospital comparing the efficacy of the Medi-Shower silver impregnated showerhead and hose with fixed and adjustable showerheads in a healthcare environment.

A look – by a business development manager at Howorth Air Technology – at how the advent of vapourising hydrogen peroxide as a high efficacy biocide over the past 30 years has ‘simplified and de-risked bioburden reduction’.

The Harley Street Medical Area in London is home to some of the world’s most ‘cutting edge’ medical facilities, yet it is a place restricted by, but blessed with, historical architecture and listed buildings. Simon Baynham, property director at The Howard de Walden Estate, which looks after the area, explains the unique challenges involved in deploying modern medicine in a heritage environment.

Giving the opening keynote on the first day of last month’s Healthcare Estates 2017 conference, Simon Corben, director and head of Profession, NHS Estates and Facilities Efficiency & Productivity Division at NHS Improvement, outlined some of the key challenges and milestones for he and his team during his first six months in the role.

‘Having started with an empty shell’, the team at Fortius Group developed the design of a new orthopaedic surgical centre in London’s Marylebone.

The editor of HEJ’s sister publication, The Clinical Services Journal, discusses developing thinking on what constitutes the most effective healthcare cleaning practice.

A nurse call system specialist has developed a software product extension to enable easy viewing of the wealth of data generated in a ‘clean and accessible’ form.