FEATURE ARTICLES

Ian Ellis, a ‘smart buildings’ specialist at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, explains why recent years’ heatwaves in the UK point to a new challenge – simultaneously mitigating the effects of climate change while dealing with the root cause of carbon emissions.

An Electrical Design engineer at Mott MacDonald discusses his research as part of a Master’s degree to understand the challenges the NHS faces to improve its electrical resilience, focusing particularly on microgrids and battery energy storage.

Karina Jones, an IHEEM-registered Authorising Engineer (Water), and member of the Institute’s Water Technical Platform, considers some of the most prevalent hazardous waterborne bacteria found in healthcare premises, and the key steps to keep their growth and transmission in check.

Under Prime Minister, Sanna Marin’s 2019 Government Programme, Finland will be carbon-neutral by 2035, a goal requiring both faster reduction of emissions in all sectors, and strengthening of national carbon sinks. In this article, Leena Setälä, Sustainability director of the Hospital District of Southwestern Finland, sets out her vision for a ‘roadmap’ to reduce carbon emissions in the healthcare sector.

Hospitals aren’t just another building; rather they are ‘a processing facility in which lives are being saved daily’ – this requires reliability and energy. So say James Moyes, Simon Witts, M.AIRAH, and Broden Kay of Australian STEM consultancy, VA Sciences, who argue that, as a result, ‘we should stop bundling them in with other building types when it comes to talking about green buildings’.

The sound and acoustics generated in healthcare settings have a major impact on both patients and staff. With sound levels increasing, Andrea Harman, from Saint-Gobain Ecophon, discusses some of the main considerations in creating a quieter, more calming, recovery environment.

Tony Wells, Chief Executive Officer of Merit, a specialist in offsite manufacture and build of ‘hi-tech’ facilities for healthcare, laboratory, cleanroom, manufacturing, and other industrial environments, discusses some of the key time, other practical, and cost-saving benefits of this approach, drawing on some of the company’s recent projects in healthcare

The Energy Trilemma – an affordable, sustainable, and secure power supply – is a pressing global issue. Powerstar looks at the funding that can help Trusts transition to clean energy, and the technology available to reduce costs, lower emissions, and ensure a secure supply.

Manufacturers have recently had difficulties obtaining components. Medical technology specialist, Brandon Medical, explains how the business has adapted.

The government took a joined-up approach when revising the Building Regulations, and if heating and cooling system designers do the same, we can tackle some of the country’s most urgent challenges, argues James Henley, Product Development manager at Daikin Applied UK.

How can increased capacity at NHS car parks offer solutions, and not problems? Hospital car parking is a complex and multi-faceted issue. James Fildes, from Berry Systems, looks at how parking solutions can adapt and adjust for future demands.

IDEXX’s Nigel Otter discusses Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust’s successful use of the company’s rapid microbiology systems to test for, and identify, Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, ‘in-house’, in its water systems.

AA Projects’ Sarah Butler discusses a new NHS England resource which aims to show how the NHS can use and manage its estate ‘as a catalyst to boost social value, address local priorities, and enhance the wider determinants of health’.

Visiting PPL Training’s York HQ, HEJ discovered what led it to begin covering key fire safety topics such as fire-stopping and fire door survey and inspection.

Chris Oates, Architect director at BDP, explains how the latest cancer care facilities are enabling patients to be treated in increasingly personalised environments. Drawing on recent UK case studies, he also highlights the considerable advantages of co-locating specialist cancer treatment facilities, scientific research, and academic centres, on one site – both to medical personnel and scientists / academics.

A ‘Workforce’-themed keynote at 2022’s Healthcare Estates featured discussions on the key workforce challenges facing both the healthcare engineering and estate management sector, and the wider NHS.

The NHS has a legacy of ageing properties, many with ventilation systems where it is not possible to gain access for effective cleaning or mandatory annual safety inspection and testing of fire dampers. This issue needs to be afforded much higher priority on risk registers, argues the MD of an independent ventilation, air, and water hygiene specialist.

Is it correct to assume that manual daily cleaning provides the best protection for people who use high-touch surfaces like door handles? In this article, Ian Graham, founder of Glana, and developer of the Axiene Clean Touch antimicrobial door handle system (HEJ – November 2021), describes the findings from hygiene performance trials comparing standard cleaning procedures with new Axiene technology

At the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a new medical gas plant developed by SHJ Medical Gas Specialists has ‘addressed areas of energy inefficiency, vastly increased the system’s productivity, resilience, and reliability’, and aided carbon emission reduction.

A Net Zero and Sustainability keynote session at Healthcare Estates 2022 included an interesting and somewhat chastening look at the ‘size’ of the energy generation challenge facing the UK in the short-to-medium term by Dame Sue Ion, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering