RECENT NEWS

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), Interserve, and VINCI Facilities, have teamed with careers advice innovators, Plotr, via the Plotr online careers resource, ‘to help young people discover careers they didn’t know existed’ – in this case in facilities management’.

A £4 m refurbishment and expansion of the accident and emergency services at The Royal Oldham Hospital – which includes dedicated paediatric facilities, and was designed by IBI Group – is complete, providing more treatment bays, support accommodation, and improved links to critical care facilities.

Maintaining electrical equipment performance in healthcare facilities, and ensuring a long service life, requires a stable electrical supply.

Bristan has launched a new shower designed to aid commercial users in the complex task of ensuring optimum water temperature and infection control.

As part of its emergency response, the UK Government is deploying Vernacare’s disposable bedpans and urinals, together with its bedpan supports and hygienic commode chairs, to help doctors treating Ebola in Sierra Leone.

A modular building project said to be the UK’s largest and most complex completed in the health sector to date has been handed over and opened on time, despite a challenging programme.

The Energy Institute (EI) has added two new modules to its Advanced Energy Manager qualification covering energy procurement and applying standards.

David Bailey Furniture Systems’ steady growth in the healthcare, education, and veterinary sectors, has seen it further strengthen its sales team by appointing Barry Hamer – who, having previously worked for another leading healthcare furniture system supplier, and a special needs furniture producer, has extensive furniture sales experience – as sales manager.

Building engineering training programmes must be broad-based, so that apprentices and students acquire not just the skills and competences of this sector, but also ‘fully understand the operation of the entire construction supply chain’.

Apollo Capital Projects Developments’ proposals for a new ‘state-of-the-art’ medical centre in north east Ipswich have received the green light from town planners.

The University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s recent replacement of ‘traditional’ bedpan washing at University College Hospital (UCH) with the Vernacare hygienic human waste disposal system is helping to improve infection prevention standards, free up nurses’ time, and improve environmental performance.

Interserve has been selected to start work on an £8 million advanced experimental station and electron microscopy facility at Diamond Light Source on the Harwell Oxford Campus.

MasterMover is keen to alert healthcare estates personnel to ‘the significant advantages’ its electric tugs can deliver within hospital environments.

Scientific Digital Imaging’s Synoptics Health Division has launched its ‘next generation’ ProReveal with advanced process validation analytics software – for detecting and analysing the amount of residual proteins on surgical instruments post- decontamination.

A new ‘smart road stud’ from New Zealand-based Solar Bright can warn drivers of potentially icy roads, and will soon be able to alert traffic management centres and maintenance depots of treacherous conditions.

Like light, colour, and temperature, sound can significantly impact on patient recovery rates in healthcare facilities; nevertheless, the importance of good acoustics is often underestimated.

The £16 million refurbishment of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary University Tower has seen 4,000 m2 of DLW Linoleum’s Marmorette flooring installed.

The Design Council has been funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to create a new online ‘Inclusive Design Hub’ for the built environment.

MTX has won the contract for a new SSCU (surgical special care unit) modular extension to the Lyme Building at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, adding an additional 12 critical care beds.

Howorth Air Technology has added a relocatable permanent or semi- permanent ‘isolation room’ to its portfolio – BioSphere – via which it says hospitals can safely contain HCAIs (healthcare-associated infections), and ‘provide absolute biological decontamination’ in just 24 hours.