FEATURE ARTICLES

The key considerations when choosing lighting for healthcare settings, with a reminder that, while important, there is more to effective lighting schemes than simply cost control.

The architects for the new Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland describe some of the considerable innovation in the design of the A$1.7 bn hospital, one of the state’s largest clinical teaching and research facilities.

Eastwood Park’s medical gas portfolio manager challenges ‘the norm’ in medical gas training, and raises a number of thought-provoking questions.

The latest nurse call systems enable healthcare facilities to incorporate a wealth of other functions, as providers increasingly look to connect up to other infrastructure to improve efficiency, provide better care, and enable detailed monitoring of staff response times.

As technology continues to improve the performance and capability of access control products, Grant Macdonald, managing director of access control company, Codelocks, takes a look at the functionality now available from the latest systems, and suggests ways that healthcare estates and facilities personnel with responsibility for security can reap the benefits.

Eastwood Park Training’s healthcare fire safety expert, Paul Beech, an independent fire safety consultant, and managing director of Fagus Fire Safety Consultancy, raises concerns about the apparent lack of response in healthcare circles to changes in fire safety guidance. Here he focuses on the key changes to HTM 05-01 (2nd edn 2013) and HTM 05-02, the latter updated just over 12 months ago, for those responsible for fire safety in healthcare organisations.

At an event held on 20 March at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, representatives from some of the UK’s largest healthcare estates – among a larger cross section of delegates – were asked the question: ‘Legionella compliance – are you doing it wrong?’

Independent consultant to the healthcare sector, Dr Melvyn Langford, outlines his concerns that, in many cases, the emergency diesel generators so critical to the resilience and uninterrupted operation of clinical and other functions within healthcare facilities may not be performing to reliability levels set out in guidance and codes of practice, and sets out recommendations to reduce the risk of breakdown, necessitating, he argues, a multi-disciplinary approach.

Catherine Zeliotis, a senior architect and healthcare leader at Stantec, and the lead clinical designer for the new Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital in London, describes both the company’s key design philosophies, and how it overcame a number of challenging practical issues – including not displacing the remains of a buried Roman boat found on the site – to create the blueprint for what the practice, and indeed all the project participants, believe will be a ground-breaking new cancer treatment complex.

Dr Nebil Achour BSc MSc PhD, a researcher at Loughborough University who has 13 years’ experience and expertise in disaster prevention – with particular focus on the resilience of healthcare facilities – examines some of the ways that business continuity and resilience can be ‘built into’ hospitals and other healthcare facilities, to enable them to remain functional in the event of major ‘disaster’ or ‘hazard’ events such as earthquake, fire, or flood. He draws on his own work, experience, and reflections, and considers some of the key international thinking and approaches.

Jon Fletcher, operations director at Interfurn UK, which designs and manufactures ultraclean hospital ventilation (HVAC) systems and healthcare and laboratory furniture, discusses the company’s approach to designing ultraclean ventilation (UCV) canopies – which it says offer greater protection against infection and improved cleanliness for patients and staff than more ‘traditionally designed’ systems, alongside enhanced performance, greater energy efficiency, easier installation, and a more ‘future-proof design’.

It is often said that food is the best form of medicine, but will the new Hospital Food Standards help? Good quality, high standard catering in hospitals and healthcare establishments is crucial. Here ISS Healthcare’s catering services director, the immediate past chair of the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA), Andy Jones, outlines just how important it is for Trusts throughout the British Isles to consistently promote, develop, and implement, catering standards, and to ensure they that are adhered to.

The British Parking Association (BPA) has recently worked with the Department of Health to update parking guidelines for NHS Trusts.

Having worked in the parking sector for nearly a decade, Leighton Ponting now spearheads the business development of Open Parking, a specialist parking management operation which claims to deploy ‘cutting edge and proven technologies to maximise customer experience and improve compliance around major public facilities’.

In this article, the third in a series on the new ISO 55000 asset management standards (see also HEJ – October 2014 and February 2015), Kevin Main, marketing director for asset management solutions learning consultancy, Asset Wisdom, and June Lancaster, a learning expert with years of experience of learning in the healthcare sector, describe “how the asset management challenge calls on facilities management companies and other suppliers to the healthcare sector to become ‘learning organisations’”, and how this has been achieved by Sodexo, ‘and can be done by others’.

Looking ahead to the healthcare challenges facing the next government, Conor Ellis, head of healthcare at built asset consultancy, EC Harris, argues, in a personal viewpoint, that ‘more commercial’ business case returns on investment, better commercial and FM delivery, and more strategic thought on project engagement ahead of procurement, should be among the priorities if the NHS is to continue to provide the standard of care for which it is world-renowned while operating efficiently and within tight budgets.

Having, on leaving school, completed a mining engineering apprenticeship, and later managed one of England’s biggest coalmining complexes, Essentia CEO, Steve McGuire, spent 10 years in senior estates and facilities roles with the forerunner to today’s Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, before being recruited in 2003 by London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust to head its estates and facilities function.

In an article that first appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of Canadian Healthcare Facilities, Mark Berest, a principal at B+H Architects, and Carol Ringer, a clinical design consultant with WR Consulting Group, explain why Ontario’s new St Catharines Hospital, which opened two years ago, is considered one of Canada’s most advanced hospital designs when it comes to infection prevention and control.

One year on from the publication of the Health and Safety Executive’s HSG 274 Part 2 guidelines on controlling Legionella bacteria in hot and cold water systems, Carole Armstrong, marketing manager at Delabie UK, considers three point-of-use anti-scalding technologies that help to control the risk of scalding in environments with low, intermediate and high levels of risk to patients, staff, and visitors. She also considers different solutions suggested by the guidelines for reducing bacterial contamination while minimising the risk of scalding.

The 2015 Design in Mental Health (DIMH) Conference, Exhibition & Dinner takes place this month at the National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull.