FEATURE ARTICLES

Andover-based household and bathroom product supplier Croydex has launched a toilet seat which it claims effectively prevents bacteria being spread into the surrounding air and onto numerous surfaces when toilets are flushed.

Andover-based household and bathroom product supplier Croydex has launched a toilet seat which it claims effectively prevents bacteria being spread into the surrounding air and onto numerous surfaces when toilets are flushed.

With the new ISO 9001:2008 quality management system (QMS) superseding ISO 9001:2000, Charles Bright, BSc, MBA, principal quality consultant and medical devices lead auditor at specialist medical devices and healthcare sector consultancy Plasmed, discusses implementation of the latest standard, touching on the experience of a large English NHS acute hospital which achieved certification this March – one of only a handful of UK hospitals to have achieved the distinction to date.

MTX Contracts, a specialist contractor with a growing healthcare portfolio, has helped the Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Berkshire meet growing demand for orthopaedic surgery with the ultra-fast conversion of a former X-ray department to a new ultra-clean theatre.

Sustainability specialists within global professional services consultancy Arup have developed a statistical model based on Carbon Trust-collated data that they believe will enable owners and occupiers of even large estates to identify the most cost-effective means of improving their buildings’ sustainability both now and in the future.

How the health service, designers and architects can learn from the best hospitals already built to develop healthcare buildings which offer both an improved business case operationally and a more sustainable footprint, as well as sufficient adaptability to accommodate the growing shift from acute to primary care, was the focus of a joint Mansell/BT event staged recently in London. HEJ reports.

With side rooms in ever shorter supply across NHS hospitals, the Department of Health has developed an ingenious portable isolation unit that can be rapidly assembled around the bed of patients suffering infections such as those caused by MRSA and Clostridium difficile to help prevent cross-infection and simultaneously help reduce bed blocking.

Hospitals are now providing feedback on a range of infection prevention technologies selected by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency for evaluation. Promising innovations include a system that uses hydrogen peroxide vapour for decontamination, and a test device for monitoring the cleanliness of equipment and wards. Louise Frampton reports.

Conor Ellis, head of health sector at international built asset consultancy EC Harris, argues that steps to “drive further value” from the existing healthcare estate, coupled with an approach to investment that mirrors best practice in the commercial sector, will be needed to meet patients’ rising healthcare expectations in an ever more competitive market.

With mounting pressure on hospitals and other healthcare facilities to reduce their energy bills, coupled with the need to reduce their carbon footprint, developer and supplier of combined heat and power systems Cogenco argues that adding CHP plant to existing energy generation equipment such as gas boilers has never made greater financial sense. Jonathan Baillie reports

Next month’s Healthcare Estates conference and exhibition will take place against a challenging financial backdrop, but one in which health estates and facilities managers are nevertheless expected to ensure that care is delivered in buildings where standards of cleanliness, safety, and overall “fitness-for-purpose” meet 21st Century patient aspirations.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, international training provider for hospital support services Eastwood Park last year ran well over 200 different courses, plus a range of NVQs, with over 1,500 delegates participating in its residential and occupationally-based training.

ISS Mediclean, the healthcare cleaning company and soft FM specialist, has established a permanent decontamination cleaning unit within a modular cabin-type structure at the South London Healthcare NHS Trust’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, in what is believed to be the UK health sector’s first installation of such a facility. Jonathan Baillie reports.

In one of the architectural practice’s largest ever contracts of its kind, Nightingale Associates is playing a major part in a £335 million local health reconfiguration project (the Greater Peterborough Health Investment Plan) which should see primary and acute care provision transformed in Peterborough and its surrounds.

Nigel Sharp, national engineering and estates manager at Spire Healthcare, says engineering has never enjoyed a stronger focus at the UK private healthcare provider and its predecessor BUPA Hospitals than it does today.

In a follow-up to a paper published in Health Estate Journal in February, Capitalising in the long term, Bernd Rechel*, Stephen Wright†, Barrie Dowdeswell‡, Nigel Edwards§, and Martin McKee# report on the findings of a research project into the financing, design and building of innovative European hospitals.

Health Estate Journal discusses with medical auction specialist Hilditch Group how Trusts and other healthcare providers can safely and gainfully dispose of, at auction, equipment no longer required, discovering how both buyers and sellers can benefit.

With new legislation on the horizon that will give authorised NHS staff the power, for the first time ever, to themselves order removal of individuals causing “nuisance and disturbance” from hospital premises, Health Estate Journal considers the key security issues facing the healthcare sector, explains the background to the legislation, and talks to a leading security provider, the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS), and two large acute Trusts, about how they overcome some of the security problems they face.

With new legislation on the horizon that will give authorised NHS staff the power, for the first time ever, to themselves order removal of individuals causing “nuisance and disturbance” from hospital premises, Health Estate Journal considers the key security issues facing the healthcare sector, explains the background to the legislation, and talks to a leading security provider, the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS), and two large acute Trusts, about how they overcome some of the security problems they face.

The challenges facing today’s estates and facilities managers in creating a worldclass, sustainable, care environment for individuals no longer “grateful patients” but instead “critical consumers” at a time when considerable uncertainty exists about how, and where, future patient care will be delivered, were discussed by speakers from the UK, mainland Europe, the US and Canada at HefmA’s recent 12th Annual Conference in London. Jonathan Baillie reports.