FEATURE ARTICLES

Health Estate Journal reports on the design and construction of the UK’s first dedicated transplantation centre, at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, considering some of the complex practical, adjacency, structural, and aesthetic challenges the project team had to overcome to create a facility designed to provide both leading edge medical training and research facilities, and a light, spacious, and uplifting patient and staff environment.

Stuart Watkin BEng (Hons) MSc CEng MIHEEM, head of Engineering Compliance & Energy at North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, reports on a recent six-month trial, at the Trust’s University Hospital of North Tees, of a new saline-based disinfection system for combating Legionella.

DuPont claims that electrical arc, and the resulting “arc flash”, are among the deadliest, least understood hazards of electricity”, and can potentially occur in many industrial and other applications, including hospital plant rooms.

Lorie Shekter-Wolfson, assistant vice-president, Waterfront, and Dean of Community Services and Health Sciences, at George Brown College in Toronto, describes the construction of a new waterfront campus for the College, where the aim is to provide a learning facility “flexible enough to evolve and shape future healthcare delivery models and assist collaborative learning”.

Bill Geerlings, CEng, FIHEEM, FIHEA, BHA NSW, project director, on the A$1.76 billion Gold Coast University Hospital in Southport, Queensland, describes how the team behind the new healthcare facility arrived at a design and plans for a hospital, due for completion late in 2012.

An Essex-headquartered company which claims to manufacture the world’s leading “brand” of glass vision panel, is calling for legislation to regulate the quality and design of such products.

A recent Soil Association survey saw nearly a third of the 1,000 patients questioned about the food they had received during a recent hospital stay report that it was so bad that, at times, they could not recognise what was on their plate (HEJ – September 2011).

With the NHS in England spending some £6 billion annually on hospital supplies, but (says the Department of Health) some English hospitals paying nearly three times as much for the same items as their counterparts, Health Minister, Simon Burns, has called on suppliers to significantly extend use of standardised GS1 barcodes in an attempt to improve “transparency” for procurement staff.

Health Estate Journal reports on independent building services specialist, NG Bailey’s important role on Phase 2A of the ongoing major redevelopment of one of the UK, and indeed one of the world’s, most iconic children’s healthcare facilities, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Having only moved into modular building construction early this year, mid-August saw pre-medical installation contractor, Canute International Medical Services (CIMS), complete its first ever such building for the medical sector.

Colin Russell, healthcare specialist at Schneider Electric (pictured), explains how the company has recently worked with Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to implement a major energy-saving project at the Trust’s Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

Growing demand for a wide range of surgical procedures, coupled with a strong belief in the advantages – both to surgeons and patients – of minimally invasive robot-assisted surgery, have seen the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust open a new twin operating theatre suite, equipped with the Midlands’ first da Vinci surgical robot, at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital.

Susan Witterick, director of Acoustics and Air Quality at Capita Symonds, examines the important role of acoustics in healthcare facility design in the “Age of Austerity”, warning that, despite being a key factor in creating an optimal hospital environment for patients, staff, and visitors, it is too often still viewed as “a poor cousin at the design team table”.

Conor Ellis, global account leader, Health; Ed Baldwin, partner, and Dr Rachel Dick, consultant, at international built asset consultancy, EC Harris, provide an updated assessment on the current NHS estate, and, in the wake of the publication of an earlier detailed paper on the subject in late 2010.

With the NHS aiming to reduce its 2007 carbon footprint by 10% by 2015, Chris Horsley, managing director of Babcock Wanson UK, a provider of industrial boilers and burners, thermal oxidisers, air treatment, water treatment, and associated services, looks at how one NHS Trust has approached the challenge, and considerably reduced its carbon emissions, by refurbishing its boiler house and moving from oil to gas-fired steam generation.

Creating a new hospital that proves itself to be sustainable on a greenfield site is quite a challenge. Paul Bell, director at Ryder Architecture, describes how the St Andrews Community Hospital and Health Centre has been delivered to achieve just that for NHS Fife.

An independent survey into hospital food standards in England conducted earlier this year for the Soil Association saw over half of those patients surveyed admit they would not be happy serving the meals they received during a recent hospital stay to a child, while 29% said the food was so bad that, at times, they could not recognise what was on their plate.

Simon England, director at Accenture Health UK, outlines the benefits of an “assessment-based” approach to creating “smarter” healthcare buildings with reduced running costs and a lower carbon footprint.

Government plans for NHS reforms will have a direct impact on the specification of security products within hospitals, surgeries, and care facilities, argues Tina Hughan, head of marketing for ASSA ABLOY, who considers the likely ramifications, and how security products must adapt to accommodate these changes.

At a recent seminar in London, “Sustainability and the environment in the real world”, speakers from multinational flooring specialist, Tarkett, and major users of the company’s floorcoverings, examined how specifier, customer, consumer, and regulatory demands for more “sustainable” flooring systems are impacting on this important product sector.