RECENT NEWS

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.

A BioSphere unit can be erected around a single bed quickly and easily, and requires no remedial works to any existing services. A ward can have a single unit, or as many as needed.

Fulton has supplied a skid-mounted, dual-fuel-fired steam boiler package to Southmead Hospital as part of North Bristol NHS Trust’s £430 million PFI redevelopment of the site (HEJ – May 2014).

Steam from the ‘package’, featuring two Fulton 60J boilers plus ancillaries, is used during washing and sterilisation of surgical equipment and instruments at the hospital’s temporary central sterile services department (CSSD).

Elliott has unveiled ‘a cost-effective rentable building solution’ specifically to address health sector managers’ needs.

The company said: “Offered with flexible rental terms, the high quality modular buildings are able to integrate seamlessly with existing buildings, or to create new, standalone facilities. The cost is a fraction of that of a permanent building. An Elliott rentable building can be handed over within eight weeks.”

Elliott has unveiled ‘a cost-effective rentable building solution’ specifically to address health sector managers’ needs.

The company said: “Offered with flexible rental terms, the high quality modular buildings are able to integrate seamlessly with existing buildings, or to create new, standalone facilities. The cost is a fraction of that of a permanent building. An Elliott rentable building can be handed over within eight weeks.”

Laundry practitioners in the care sector can now, the professional laundry equipment specialist says, access ‘a wealth of professional support and guidance’ on best industry practice, following Electrolux Professional’s launch of a new ‘Good Laundry Practice Guide’.

The ‘extensive information pack’ – available free to registered laundry practitioners – boasts ‘a mini guide’ to hygienic laundry practices based on the RABC system / EN 14065, a catalogue of technological solutions designed to maintain optimum hygiene, and a DVD that demonstrates ‘the correct procedures’ in a real-life care environment. Operators wishing to view the video guides can also do so via Electrolux Professional’s dedicated YouTube channel.

Ian Sams has been named MD and general manager for Eaton-Williams Group, which provides climate-controlled solutions for environments including hospitals, commercial offices, and data centres.

The announcement was made by Mark De Vincent, president of CES Group. Eaton-Williams is an affiliate of CES Group, reportedly North America’s largest manufacturer of custom air-handling equipment.

The Carillion Health cleaning team at the Royal London Hospital is piloting ‘an innovative infection control solution’ via a six-week trial featuring a UV-C light ‘triple tower technology system’ reportedly never before used in the UK.

Carillion’s Cleaning Centre of Excellence’s ‘extensive research and investigation’ into using UV-C disinfection to control healthcare-associate infections (HAIs) identified a new system that the company says ‘overcomes the shortcomings’ of existing UV-C disinfectors.

Andy Sneyd has been elected president of B&ES – the Building & Engineering Services Association – for 2014/15.

A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers with an MSc in building services engineering, he has over 25 years’ experience in the sector.

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.