FEATURE ARTICLES

In advance of the University & Healthcare Estates and Innovation Conference in Dublin, Mott MacDonald’s Alison Ryan and two sector colleagues look at the role of regional heat networks in addressing some of the challenges ahead with respect to achieving Net Zero Carbon

Peter Orendecki, Senior Contracts manager and Water AP at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, highlights ‘the apparent lack of understanding of the risks’ posed by hazardous bacteria in hospital wastewater systems among some designers, architects, and even Infection Control personnel.

Clive Nattrass of the Carbon and Energy Fund explains how the NHPower programme is using collaboration to manage risks associated with Trusts progressing to Net Zero, while three co-authors focus on the opportunities for decarbonisation of natural gas at the point of use and potential wider NHS deployment of geothermal energy technology.

In the third in a series of HEJ articles from key personnel involved in the New Hospital Programme, NHP Deputy Clinical Director, Cheryl Riotto, outlines how provision of care in our future hospitals will be transformed to deliver maximum benefits to both patients, and the staff working in them.

In an article first published in Canadian Healthcare Facilities, Lisa Westerhoff, who leads the Climate Policy & Planning team at Integral Group in Vancouver, reports on a presentation she gave at the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society British Columbia Chapter Conference in Whistler last June, in which she and two co-speakers ‘unpacked and demystified how to integrate climate resilience into healthcare facilities’.

Kent Waddington, Linda Varangu, and Mia Sarrazin of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, discuss a project in Canada that sought to verify that hospital use of PPE and some medical singleuse plastic (mSUP) materials could be successfully and safely managed by focusing on the preferred principles of a circular economy – reduction and re-use.

Healthcare facilities have unique ventilation requirements. Lee Jenkins-Skinner, CIAT’s AHU specialist, highlights recently updated guidance in this key area for hospital premises.

A look at laundry facilities’ contribution as part of a hospital’s overall ‘infection control care bundle’, and some of the key priorities to ensure they are operated compliantly and safely.

Tony Stubbs, Business Development manager (Healthcare) at Veolia Water Technologies UK, explains why a consistent, pure water supply, and smart monitoring solutions, should be an integral part of a robust patient safety strategy

Better asset monitoring and reporting is boosting the performance and reliability of sluice room equipment – improving patient outcomes, cutting costs, and enhancing efficiencies, says infection prevention and control specialist, DDC Dolphin.

Moritz Spellenberg, associate director at international architectural practice, Llewelyn Davies, discusses the range of benefits that increasing ‘digitisation’ of hospitals can bring to both patients and staff, in areas including improved care, less time spent on time-consuming manual processes, better utliisation of space, enhanced clinical flow, greater overall efficiencies, and a more pleasant and comfortable hospital stay.

HLM Architects’ Kevin O’Neill explains how the practice developed what it believes is a ‘unique’ eight-bedded cluster layout for the 144 single bedrooms within a new North Wing at Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital.

NHS Property Services (NHSPS) recently opened a new Integrated Care Centre in Devizes in the heart of Wiltshire, which is now is now open to patients. Here, Andrew Strange, Regional Partnership director – Midlands, at NHSPS, gives us ‘a deep dive’ into how the project first started, the challenges faced, what the centre will be used for, and why sustainability is so important for the future of the NHS.

Dr Mike Weinbren, a consultant medical microbiologist, examines some of the major health risks from airborne and waterborne microorganisms transmitted via hospital wastewater systems.

The New Hospital Programme is ‘as challenging as it is ambitious’, says the team co-ordinating it. In the second in a series of articles in HEJ from key NHP personnel, Programme director, Saurabh Bhandari, describes how the way major healthcare infrastructure is delivered must change to meet demand.

Professor Terry Young, a specialist in research in health technology, health services, and information systems, who runs his own consultancy, and Steve Powell, a former Consultant Interventional Radiologist and Clinical director at a large teaching hospital, discuss the sometimes conflicting demands of healthcare providers and patients in terms of the optimal location for medical care provision.

Allan Jackson, Southern Healthcare manager at Power Control, takes a look at the vital role of isolated and uninterruptible power supplies in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and discusses some of the most important steps to maintaining them for optimal, reliable operation.

With the ever-changing landscape of requirements, regulations, and engineering practice within healthcare, Michael Ell, Medical Gas Portfolio manager, and Mark Williams, lead medical gas trainer, both of Eastwood Park Training, explain why practical training, building on theoretical knowledge, is key to gaining competency in the specialist field of medical gas pipeline systems.

Gavin Statham, Regional director, and Mike Robinson, BIM manager, BES, explain some of the many benefits, both to design and construction teams involved in healthcare projects, and the operators and users of healthcare buildings, of effective deployment of BIM technology

Against the backdrop of continuing concerns over global warming, Geoff Southern, associate director, Buildings, and Out-of-hospital Care lead (UK) at Arcadis IBI Group, considers some of the key potential ways to make healthcare buildings more adaptable and resilient to climate extremes, and to reduce the environmental impact of both the facilities themselves, and the plant and equipment needed to keep them fully functional, providing optimal care, day in, day out.