RECENT NEWS

Healthcare estates personnel responsible for the safe management of water systems can put their questions on all aspects of the revised ACoP (L8) document to experts at a one-day ‘Q&A’ event being held by new training company, Immerse Training, at the Best Western Plus Manor House Hotel, in Meriden, near Solihull, on 11 September.

Atlas Copco has developed ‘an advanced medical air plant calculation tool’ to assist with correct selection of a medical air plant based around the different medical gas standards set out within ISO7396-1, HTM 02-01, and HTM2022.

‘State-of-the-art’ lighting and electrical protection systems supplied and commissioned by Bender UK are enhancing a new £300,000 ultra cleanair theatre for orthopaedic implant surgery at Furness General Hospital, Barrow-in-Furness.

EBME managers and technicians attending Eastwood Park for the latest accredited medical equipment training are now benefiting from ‘substantial development and investment in this niche technical training portfolio’.

Abloy UK’s supply of high-security CLIQ cylinders and keys to Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to upgrade the security of the drug cabinets at Scunthorpe General Hospital has resulted in ‘significant cost and time savings’.

Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for ‘serious safety breaches’, and fined, after a vulnerable patient at Southend Hospital died after falling nine metres from a third-floor window fitted only with a single restrictor in July 2010.

International ‘total facilities management provider’, OCS, has appointed Jane Sheard as UK managing director of Facilities Services.

Gradus has updated its wall protection catalogue, which now contains informative 3D and 2D drawings, and information on new products and current legislation.

Public Health England (PHE) and the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust have recently officially opened a new two-storey extension to the current pathology building on the Heartlands Hospital site in Birmingham.

West London Mental Health NHS Trust has named Kier as preferred tenderer for the Broadmoor Hospital redevelopment scheme. (HEJ – February 2013) in a project set to ‘transport the 150-year-old hospital into the 21st century’, providing ‘a modern, fit-for-purpose environment for services’, and securing the future of high secure mental healthcare locally.

The organisers of the 2014 (23rd) IFHE Congress, being held in October next year in Buenos Aires, have revealed more details on the planned conference topics under the overall event theme of ‘The planning and design of buildings for health’.

IHEEM was pleased to host the IFHE President, Ole Rist, and the organisation’s General Secretary, Gunnar Baekken, at a recent meeting of the International Technical Platform held at Arup’s offices in London, which followed a meeting of the Institute’s Council.

Over 25 international articles have been received for the 2014 IFHE Digest, after a call for article synopses was made in the last (May 2013) ‘IFHE’ edition of Health Estate Journal, writes Andy Wavell, IHEEM’s IFHE representative, and the Digest’s commissioning editor.

IHEEM’s President, Greg Markham is encouraging the Institute’s members to engage with their local Branches and offer support and ideas for technical visits, ‘fringe themes’, and social events, as part of IHEEM’s planned bid for the IFHE’s 2018 International Congress.

As IHEEM often points out through articles in this Journal, and as the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) puts it in the latest issue of the Engineering Council’s ‘Register News’ newsletter (May 2013; www.tinyurl.com/lvshjgs).

IHEEM’s Scottish Branch held its 2013 AGM recently at the Glasgow offices of National Services Scotland, writes Branch secretary, Andrew Tweedie, with presentations from the Institute’s President, Greg Markham, and its Chief Executive, Julian Amey.

Energy management and environmental solutions specialist, EP&T Global, has joined IHEEM as a Corporate Affiliate Member ‘to help healthcare estates managers achieve significant energy and cost savings’.

Members of IHEEM’s Yorkshire and London Branches, accompanied by a number of family members, recently enjoyed an enjoyable Saturday out on board the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (KWVR) steam train in West Yorkshire, courtesy of Yorkshire Branch treasurer, Ian Davies, who is a volunteer at the steam railway, having been a regular visitor ‘from the age of 13 or 14’.

Reducing the energy consumed by UK healthcare buildings and facilities, and some of the more innovative and imaginative ways that healthcare estates teams can reduce their estates’ carbon footprint, will be a key focus at this year’s Healthcare Estates show.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, an established user of Intastop’s door and wall protection systems, has selected the company’s protective impact wrapping for existing and new doors during a refurbishment programme within the Doncaster Royal Infirmary’s medical imaging department.