RECENT NEWS

When Karl Storz successfully bid to refit two integrated theatres at Colchester General Hospital, the team had just nine days to work on each theatre; in just over a fortnight, the hospital had two new OR1 NEO integrated theatres featuring ‘some of the most advanced technology of its kind in the world for carrying out minimally invasive surgery’.

The Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre in Harrogate has officially been opened.

The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Erica Kemp, has opened the city's new eye centre at Spire One Penny Lane.

Specialist in in door opening solutions, Assa Abloy, has supplied a range of products designed to mitigate patient risk to a new West Midlands mental health facility.

Building apartments above public buildings including hospitals, schools, and libraries, could provide room for 630,000 new homes in London, according to a report, Building Our Way Out of a Crisis, published by engineering services consulting specialist, WSP.

Biomass boiler specialist, Wood Energy, is introducing five new service and maintenance plans for its installations, and, in what it says may be a first, offering 20-year boiler warranties.

Specialist insulation distributor, Encon, has appointed Steve Moorhouse, a senior industrial/HVAC industry expert with over 30 years’ experience, as its new Yorkshire and North West business development manager for the industrial and HVAC sectors.

An award for an outstanding innovation in healthcare – the Limpet Drug Trolley Alarm – has been presented to a team of NHS staff at an event organised by Health Enterprise East.

Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust has completed a move of patients and staff into Hopewood Park in Ryhope, Sunderland – a 122-bed inpatient facility for adults, providing psychiatric intensive care (PICU), acute assessment and treatment, complex care, and stepped care.

Compass Group UK & Ireland says it is ‘continuing to champion innovation in health and wellbeing’, with the publication of its 2020 Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which outlines a number of ‘forward-thinking pledges’ that the company says demonstrate its dedication to help ‘feed change and fight obesity’ – divided into three key areas – Healthier Food, Healthier Lives, and Healthier Futures.

Kentec fire alarm control panels are at the heart of a recently completed fire alarm control panel system upgrade at John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford Women’s Centre, which will allow improvements to the its evacuation procedures, and the future implementation of loop-powered base sounders throughout the building.

Fremantle Court, the Fremantle Trust’s new ‘flagship’ care home one mile south of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, provides care support for 90 people in a two-storey, purpose-built building.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has awarded a five-year contract to facilities management provider, OCS, to deliver security and parking management services for its two large acute hospital sites – Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.

Altro has won a coveted award at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Manufacturing Excellence (MX) Awards 2014 in the ‘Innovation in Products and Processes’ category.

Cable management specialist, Legrand, has made ‘wide-ranging improvements’ to its powertrack underfloor power distribution system, ‘making it faster t o install, and more flexible than ever’.

Independent best-practice benchmarking specialist, i-Clean, has expanded its Efficiency Reviews to include Waste Management.

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.