RECENT NEWS

Jigsaw Training has successfully renewed a contract to provide a comprehensive apprenticeship programme with leading food and support services provider, Compass Group UK & Ireland.

Interfurn Medical Systems was recently appointed to design, supply, and install, two ‘skirtless’ ultraclean ventilation canopies at Manchester Royal Infirmary as part of a new hybrid theatre suite situated within the Infirmary’s Elective Treatment Centre.

A unit for treating teenage and young adult cancer patients completed last year at Southampton General Hospital has been colourfully fitted out with Tarkett flooring.

Against a world backdrop of increased concerns about energy security, price fluctuations and, the need to address climate change, six new research projects that aim to gain a fuller understanding of how energy is managed in the country’s non-domestic buildings have recently been launched.

Funded with £3 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), on behalf of the Research Councils UK Energy Programme (RCUKEP), the research will ‘address how to use technology, data and information, mathematics, law, and sociology, to create better energy strategies and behaviours in the public and private non-domestic building stock’.

Vinyl flooring specialist, Polyflor, says its new Polysafe Verona PUR ‘confidently lays a major foundation for the future of the decorative safety flooring market’.

Vanguard Healthcare Solutions has raised £16.5 million in a debt refinancing deal with high street bank, AIB.

Guy’s Tower, at London’s famous Guy’s Hospital, has regained its title as the world’s tallest hospital building following a £40 million repair and environmental improvement programme, and the addition of a light sculpture; the Tower is now 148.65 metres high, including the artwork.

B&ES Publications’ newly updated TR/19 ‘Guide to Good Practice – Internal Cleanliness of Ventilation Systems’ offers guidance on testing and cleaning of ventilation systems to meet required standards.

George Osborne has announced approval for a £353m new acute hospital in Smethwick, to be funded by both the public and private sector through a Private Finance 2 deal.

Vital Energi has delivered five CHP engines to five hospitals in five days, and, when combined with energy efficiency measures, the company says the new plant will result in estimated financial savings of £44.6 million, while reducing CO2 emissions by over 200,000 tonnes, over the course of the engines’ lifecycles.

Ian Whitelock, joint MD, said: “Delivering five engines in five days is a huge undertaking. Normally the lead time would be in the region of 26 weeks, and in some instances, to meet our clients’ funding deadlines, we reduced this to six."

VINCI Park UK has opened a new £14 million car park at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, which has added 1,228 new parking spaces for visitors, patients and staff.

Thirteen operating theatres – eight at Watford General Hospital, and five at St Albans City Hospital – have been upgraded by Starkstrom after the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust successfully bid for special funds from the Department of Health.

SRCL’s eighth clinical waste Alternative Treatment (AT) site, at Knowsley, near Liverpool, which was officially opened recently, is designed to recover 100% of the treated waste as refuse-derived fuel (RDF)

The RDF will be used in the cement industry as an alternative to virgin fossil fuels, diverting 4,500 tonnes of waste from landfill annually.

Balfour Beatty has been joined by Grant Shapps, the MP for Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, to mark the latest phase in the creation of the new £23 million Queen Elizabeth II Hospital.

The four-storey facility in Welwyn Garden City, being built for the Assemble Community Partnership, is approximately half way to its completion, and consists of 8,542 m2 of clinical and community space.

NG Bailey has completed its specialist role in the creation of two new operating theatres at one of Scotland’s major hospitals.

The new £4 m facilities at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary – equipped with the latest ‘keyhole’ surgery technology – were developed to generate extra capacity for the NHS to treat more patients, more quickly.

Kingsley Green Hospital near Radlett in Hertfordshire, a new adult acute mental healthcare inpatient unit, part of which has already opened, has selected Morley-IAS control panels as part of a sophisticated fire safety system.

Part of a £42 million investment by Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, the new development, formerly known as Harperbury Hospital, extends the existing psychiatric and care facilities on the site.

The ‘next generation’ in professional dishwashers, Miele Professional’s Hygiene machines are said to ‘guarantee perfectly clean crockery and cutlery for the care industries and hospitals’.

Miele Professional said: “The tried-and-tested freshwater system for commercial dishwashers harnessed ensures safe results: fresh water is introduced during each wash phase, and during rinsing. The water temperature in the main wash is a high 60°C, while the final rinse takes place at 83°C held for five minutes.”

Workplace designer, Cannon Davis, has created a radiotherapy suite at a facility in London’s Harley Street without using lead-lined boards by installing Safeboard, a Knauf X-ray shielding plasterboard.

The suite, six consulting rooms, and two operating theatres, forms The Whiteley Clinic, which specialises in treating varicose veins.

Work has begun on the site of the Institute of Translational Medicine Birmingham (ITM), a ‘world-class clinical research facility’ located in the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital, next to the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and the University of Birmingham Medical School, and designed by Glenn Howells Architects.

The ITM’s vision is ‘to use pioneering science to accelerate the delivery of personalised healthcare’, and cure disease and save lives ‘by applying transformative science and technology, and educating and training the healthcare workforce’.

Door hinges, and small fingers getting trapped in them, continue to pose a health and safety issue in many sectors.

Such scenarios could, however, soon become less frequent, says Intastop, with its launch of a finger safety hinge which should prevent fingers being caught in the hinge opening side of the door.