RECENT NEWS

VINCI Park UK has won a new contract with the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

B&ES Publications’ newly revised TR37 – Guide to Good Practice – Installation of Combined Heat and Power (CHP), offers a practical overview of CHP for building services engineers, and ‘aims to place the installation requirements in the context of the overall construction process, and enable effective delivery of an efficiently functioning system and building’.

IDEXX, which supplies rapid microbiological test kits for water, says a peer-reviewed pan-European study in The Journal of Water and Health concludes that the IDEXX Pseudalert/ Quanti-Tray method for rapid detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces confirmed results faster than the standard reference ISO 16266 and MoDW Part 8 PACN agar membrane filtration methods, with no further confirmation steps.

Wernick Buildings says it is ‘not unaccustomed to installing healthcare buildings in a tight spot’, but recently received a challenge from Leicester Royal Infirmary that required, at least in terms of modular buildings, ‘nothing short of surgical precision’.

Trumpf Medical, which supplies products ‘designed to improve efficiency, safety, and patient care in the operating room and intensive care settings’, has moved from the Luton base of the company that gave it its name, to the headquarters of Hill-Rom, the group that will ‘shape its future’.

Life safety equipment manufacturer, C-TEC, will unveil what it is dubbing its ‘revolutionary’ new CAST addressable fire alarm system protocol at this month’s Firex International exhibition at London’s ExCeL (taking place from 16 to 18 June).

Electrical safety specialist, Bender UK – which supplies products ranging from UPS and IPS systems to surgical tables, and from clinical pendants to operating room integration systems – is to expand into a new purpose-built corporate headquarters and service centre close to its current head office in Ulverston, South Cumbria.

With hospital bed rails potential ‘hotspots’ for dangerous bacteria, manufacturer Schlosserei Röll is now offering solid antimicrobial copper rails.

It has developed a range of touch surface products for hospitals – including bed rails, IV poles, toilet flushes, door and window fittings, overbed tables and custom products – benefiting from copper’s ‘hygienic properties’, which can reduce microbial contamination ‘by >80%’.

IBI Group has appointed award-winning architect and RIBA client advisor, Wendy de Silva, to head its ‘increasingly successful’ mental health architectural team.

She is rejoining the practice from P+HS, having previously been a partner at the IBI-acquired Nightingale Associates 18 years ago.

Vanguard Healthcare, which operates the world’s largest fleet of mobile healthcare facilities, has appointed a seasoned former NHS employee with Board-level expertise to the new role of business development director.

The NHS has invited expressions of interest from hospitals across England interested in developing new ways of delivering and improving their local acute services.

The aim is ‘to enhance the viability of local hospitals through new formal shared working arrangements between clinical specialists at different hospitals, and to improve efficiency by sharing back office administration and management between different sites’.

Decontamination specialist, AVM Services, has joined forces with MMM Medical Equipment UK to deliver training on all types of sterilisers, washer-disinfectors, and ultrasonic and endoscope washer-disinfectors.

AVM will conduct selected courses at a new purpose-built training facility at MMM Medical Equipment’s UK headquarters in Leeds, all covering the requirements of relevant NHS and European standards, and able to be tailored to suit the level of knowledge already attained at individual sites, or for staff new to decontamination.

Hospital room designs make a significant difference to the likelihood of infection being spread through person-to-person contact between medics and patients, University of Leeds research reveals.

Copper bed rails have fewer contaminants, and remain clean longer, than plastic bed rails, according to a report by the Medical University of South Carolina.

GI Energy, which describes itself as ‘a sustainable energy company’, is extending its offering by launching GI Managed Services ‘to help customers get the best out of their carbon-friendly heating and cooling systems’.

Dr Jimmy Walker, Public Health England Water System microbiology and decontamination expert, George McCracken, head of Estates Risk and Environment at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Professor Hans Curt-Flemming, of the Biofilm Centre at the University of Duisburg Essen, and John Newbold, HM specialist inspector at the HSE, will be among the speakers at a two-day event in Winchester from 7-8 September focusing on water microbiology and water system safety.

GS1 UK, part of a global organisation that aims to ‘drive supply chain efficiency’ worldwide, has formed a Healthcare Advisory Board, with members ranging from NHS Trust CEOs to the chief executive of the NHS Supply Chain.

Trend Control Systems, the building energy management system (BEMS) specialist, has announced ‘the next generation’ of its room display (RD) and room sensor (RS) solutions.

A ‘fundamental change in the way care is provided care for millions of patients’, together with ‘investment in estates, IT, and innovation’, will be needed if the NHS is to ‘close the gap’ between demand and available resources, NHS Confederation CEO, Rob Webster (pictured), warned last month.

Work is due to start on the multimillion pound redevelopment of the main entrance and retail area of the Southampton General Hospital, thanks to an innovative deal conceived by the hospital’s Commercial Estates Development Partnership (CEDP) – a joint venture between UHS and Interserve Prime.