RECENT NEWS

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.

The Duchess of Cornwall last month dedicated the new home of defence medical training, Defence Medical Services (Whittington) near Lichfield in Staffordshire, marking the completion of a major building project.

A Brookfield Multiplex-led consortium has been named preferred bidder to build the proposed new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock has announced a £30 million fund to increase the supply of engineers, to encourage more women into the sector, and to address engineering skills shortages in smaller companies. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) says the fund will enable engineering companies to establish training programmes to develop future engineers, and boost the number of women in the profession.

Following the success of the first ‘Better Bedroom’, a full-scale ‘mock-up’ of an inpatient mental healthcare bedroom that opened in Warrington in October 2012 to enable those planning, designing, building, and managing such accommodation to see some of the latest technologies, fixtures, and fittings designed to enhance such environments in a realistic setting (HEJ – October 2012 and June 2013).

With only 7% of the UK engineering workforce women, the UK having Europe’s lowest percentage of female engineering professionals (at under 10%), just 3-4% of engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships female, and (according to the National Apprenticeship Service and Unionlearn), ‘gender stereotyping dissuading young women from pursing careers in traditionally male industries’.

A recent meeting of IHEEM’s London Branch saw Matthew Day, BEng (Hons) CEng MCIBSE FIHEEM MIMechE, regional partner at Harrogate-based consulting engineers, DSSR, present on new isolation rooms designed as part of the new wards and ICCU block at Sunderland Royal Infirmary.

The Institute has appealed for volunteers to assist with the registration process for Chartered Engineers, Incorporated Engineers, and Engineering Technicians. It is looking for Mentors, Reviewers, and Interviewers (see panel).

The theme for this year’s Healthcare Estates conference is ‘Quality in the Patient Environment’, reflecting the key issue of patient care, and the impact that estates and facilities departments can have on this.