FEATURE ARTICLES

IHEEM’s recently established Architecture and Design of the Built Environment Technical Platform (ADBETP) is now firmly up and running, and, as one of its members, Gary Mortimer, general manager, Facilities & Estates, at NHS Grampian, puts it, is determined to bring tangible, positive, and sustainable benefits to the NHS built environment to support the effective delivery of changing clinical needs’. Equally, the Platform hopes its activities will ‘add value to IHEEM members, technical professionals in health construction and operational management, and other healthcare professionals working in NHS buildings’. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Currently, the NHS in England collectively spends over £633 million1 on energy alone annually. With 245 Trusts,2 that is an average of £2.6 million per Trust. There is no one ‘quick-fix’ solution; the NHS needs instead to think ‘outside the box’ to make manageable improvements to its estate, and free up hefty sums to drive back into patient care.

Salto Certificated Partner, Ambar Systems, has installed Salto’s online wireless XS4 security solution at the Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland. XS4 currently secures 80 doors throughout a new emergency department, supplemented by 300 XS4 locker locks.

On 26 September 2015 the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Directives for water heaters (Lot 2) come into force, meaning that water-heating products sold in the UK and other countries in the European Economic Area will need to meet minimum energy performance criteria in order to be legally placed on the market, and will require an energy label.

In HEJ’s May issue we reported on the first ‘half’ of a lively two-and-ahalf- hour roundtable discussion jointly staged by IHEEM and building and engineering services association, the B&ES, in London.

Sixteen months ago, according to Trumpf Medical Systems, which managed the project, ‘something out of the ordinary’ happened at Leighton Hospital in Crewe. When making plans to upgrade ageing operating theatres and critical care units, the estates department took the decision to involve other disciplines from the very start of the process.

A venturi-based system installed at Manchester’s ‘old’ Saint Mary’s Hospital, designed to ensure regular flow of cold potable water flow throughout pipework, prevent stagnation, maintain HTM 04-01-compliant water temperatures – thus helping to minimise growth of potentially harmful waterborne bacteria, and eliminate deadlegs.

Energy and utilities management specialist, Dalkia, boasts over 75 years’ experience within the healthcare sector. It has helped more than 100 hospitals throughout the UK to meet carbon reduction strategies and reduce costs.

With the safety and security of all hospital users paramount, the need to safeguard valuable equipment against theft, and NHS security breaches on the rise, can estates and facilities managers afford to compromise when it comes to security in healthcare facilities?

Three articles that featured in HEJ’s April and November 2013, and April 2014 issues, focused, respectively, on the roles and responsibilities of those operating and managing medical gas pipeline systems, the MGPS Permit to Work System, and how to raise and complete the MGPS Permit to Work.

In an article which first appeared in Canadian Healthcare Facilities, the monthly magazine of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES), Michelle O’Brodovich and Etienne deMuelenaere, of independent, ISO-certified, energy efficiency specialist, Ecosystem (which has offices across the US and Canada).

Dr Tom Makin, a highly experienced microbiologist and former Directorate manager at the Department of Medical Microbiology at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, and Ken Tench, compliance manager, Estates and Facilities Directorate, at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

As reported in last month’s HEJ, the new Sustainable Development Strategy for the Health, Public Health and Social Care System for 2014-20 rightly emphasises the importance of the built environment to health and well-being.

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities unprepared for the power cuts predicted by energy observers in the light of what they say are insufficient UK power reserves, and particularly electrical energy capacity, could face ‘catastrophic’ consequences, warns Bill Wright, head of Energy Solutions at the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA).

Bathed in natural light from its prominent windows and central glass atrium, the new £430 million Brunel Building at Southmead Hospital Bristol features what main contractor, Carillion, describes as ‘a host of unconventional architectural and patient care features, as well as a progressive approach to community engagement’.

Last October’s Healthcare Estates 2013 conference saw one of the first day’s ‘Engineering’ sessions debate the topic, ‘Why do so many buildings disappoint their owners and occupants?’

In this article, supplied with the help of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE), five co-authors* from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – a German organisation that seeks to encourage and co-ordinate international cooperation in areas ranging from sustainable development to fund management.

The organisers of this month’s HefmA 2014 annual conference and exhibition promise delegates “the opportunity to hear international perspectives on the current issues facing the worldwide ‘family’ of health estates and facilities professionals”.

Early 2013 saw Brandon Medical, which designs and manufactures equipment ranging from operating theatre lighting to medical AV and control systems, celebrate ‘20 years of innovation and growth’, with a move to a new £2 million, 50,000 ft2 headquarters in Morley near Leeds, twice the size of its former premises.

Choosing flooring for healthcare takes careful consideration. New legislation in healthcare places greater responsibility on those throughout the supply chain to ensure the safety of staff, visitors, and patients – now, and in the future.