RECENT NEWS

A ‘pioneering’ new £1 million, 21-bedded ward at Warrington Hospital is ‘leading the way in providing the best quality care’ for hospital patients with dementia.

The social housing sector could play a key role in helping the NHS deal with ‘the twin threats of budget squeezes and an ageing population’, a new report from the Smith Institute, ‘Housing associations and the NHS: New thinking, New partnerships’, argues.

Produced with support from One Housing Group, the report was unveiled at Westminster on 14 July, two weeks after earlier Smith Institute research, published in the paper, ‘NHS surplus land for supported housing: why now and what are the possible cost savings?’, showed that joint work with the housing sector ‘could save the NHS up to £6bn over 25 years’.

A plumbing professional who almost spends as much time under the water as he does directing it through pipework is training tomorrow’s plumbing and heating professionals as part of their CPD studies.

Pegler Yorkshire’s 51-year-old technical trainer, Glenn Schofield, from Doncaster, who has won the British Championships, and played for Great Britain internationally, in the unusual underwater hockey sport of Octopush, is training ‘the next generation’ of installers at colleges countrywide, giving them the product knowledge and jointing expertise they need to make a successful career.

The BRE and the Design in Mental Health Network (DIMHN) are working together to develop ‘recognised quality standards’ for products used in mental healthcare buildings.

The BRE said: “There is little guidance, and few standards, for products used in these settings – the result being an inconsistent approach to product specification and performance across the NHS.”

The next phase of development at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital has commenced on site; the Premier Inn Clinical Building will complete the Mittal Children's Medical Centre, following on from the successful opening of the highly regarded Morgan Stanley Clinical Building in 2012.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s ‘ground-breaking’, web-based audio-visual link with Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) (HEJ – January and May 2011) has won the British Medical Journal (BMJ) 2014 Karen Woo Surgical Team Award – 15 years after the link was set up.

Cambridge City Council has granted planning permission for The Forum, a £120 million mixed-use medical and education facility on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The Forum, designed by architects NBBJ, is the product of a joint-venture between John Laing and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHT).

David Bailey Furniture Systems’ recent installation of furniture valued at £1.25 million in 6,500 rooms at Southmead Hospital’s new Brunel building in Bristol is the largest undertaken during MD, Trevor Gillman’s 24 years with the firm to date.

The new NHS eProcurement Strategy published last month requires all NHS Trusts in England to have a GS1 adoption plan in place by 2015.

A Cumbria-wide initiative to improve health services in rural communities is being launched by a consortium of organisations led by the University of Cumbria.

Following the popularity of the electrical workshops staged by Eastwood Park, the training centre is organising further free sessions on electrical compliance within healthcare estates during 2014.

Kohler Mira has announced the appointment of Liz Hazeldene as managing director, following the recent retirement of Dave Hill.

Following a European public tender procurement process led by the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, a five-year integrated clinical waste management contract has been awarded to SRCL.

The May 2014 HEJ show preview on this year’s HefmA conference and exhibition in Brighton cited the Health Secretary as the one ‘stakeholder’ in the ‘new’ NHS Property Services company.

People with dementia admitted to mental health units are among the most vulnerable patients in the whole care system. ‘They are usually acutely distressed, and benefit greatly from an environment designed to meet their needs’.

While the ‘sleek and often complex profiles of modern buildings offer limited decorative possibilities’, claims French-headquartered ‘professional coating innovator’, Visio-Tecnic.

Honorary Doctor Sybill Storz, owner of German-headquartered medical instrument and device manufacturer, Karl Storz, recently visited England to be admitted as a Patron to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Award-winning new seating designs head up the latest portfolio of furniture for healthcare environments from Knightsbridge Furniture.

Stakrak has upgraded and extended its popular ColdRoom+ hygienic shelving system, which can be safely used in chillers, cold rooms, and walk-in freezers at temperatures down to –28°C.

NHS Highland, one of the UK’s largest Health Boards, has cut its annual water bill by £400,000 in just three years after working with Business Stream, Scotland’s largest supplier of non-domestic water and waste water services – the saving representing a third of the £1.2 million it was previously spending annually on its water services.