RECENT NEWS

BOC Healthcare, reportedly the UK’s largest medical gases business, has made its first delivery of compressed medical gas to NHS hospitals in Scotland (to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary), marking the start of its new contract to supply medical gases to over 330 customers, from Shetland down to the Scottish Borders.

With, as Mark Jones, director of Learning and Development at Atkins puts it, ‘the UK not generating enough new engineers’, 3 March saw the official launch of the ‘EngTechNow’ campaign, which aims ‘to increase the status of Engineering Technicians’, and is targeting registration of 100,000 such technicians by 2020.

A workshop on steam sterilisation of dental instruments at the University of Glasgow Dental School covered subjects ranging from recent steam sterilisation changes in Scotland, to how transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents can be inactivated by steam, writes IHEEM in instrument decontamination and validation engineer at the School, and the event’s organiser.

Andy Wavell, IHEEM’s IFHE representative, and the commissioning editor of the annual IFHE Digest, is calling on potential contributors of articles for the 2015 IFHE Digest to supply him with synopses of around 200 words by 23 May this year; the deadline for completed articles will be 11 July 2014.

Jim Barnes, a Fellow of IHEEM, Chartered Engineer, and the first Principal, in the late 1960s, at the then newly established Hospital Engineering Centre in Falfield (later Eastwood Park), has died, aged 89.

Twenty-four members and guests from IHEEM’s North-West Branch recently visited the Robinson’s Brewery in Stockport, to be ‘educated in the brewing process’.

Following ‘extensive profession-wide reviews during 2013’, the Engineering Council has re-issued its two key Standards documents.

Step Exhibitions, organisers of IHEEM’s Healthcare Estates 2014 conference and exhibition in Manchester (7-8 October at Manchester Central), have released details on a programme of topical conference/seminar events (HEJ – March 2014) taking place during May to complement the conference – on topics including water quality and safety, medical device compliance, and sustainability.

Providing an effective healing environment for patients facing a wide range of mental health issues, while balancing their needs with security, safety, and affordability considerations, will be key area of focus at this year’s Design in Mental Health (DIMH) conference and exhibition, taking place from 13-14 May at the National Motorcycle Museum in Bickenhill near Solihull.

Barbara Weiss Architects (BWA) has completed the extensive refurbishment, extension,and change of use, of a redundant 1990s office block into the new Wokingham Medical Centre.

The 1,600 m2 NHS building provides facilities for up to 16 GPs and five nurses, along with a new pharmacy and flexible medical suite. Relocated from two separate sites, the practice now occupies a site in Wokingham’s town centre.

Surgical robots are gaining widespread acceptance globally as they enhance surgeons’ abilities in terms of surgical imaging, navigation, planning, and instrument manipulation, says a Frost & Sullivan report, Innovations in Medical Robotics.

A three-day cross-disciplinary course aimed at clinicians, designers, project and facility managers, planners, architects, and engineers, ‘with an interest in the latest concepts and ideas that will contribute to the design of an emergency department that meets contemporary and future needs’, will take place at Downing College Cambridge from 7-9 July.

The Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership has published a concise but detailed document setting out some of the options for more sustainably and effectively preventing acute hospitals from summer overheating.

Stryker Corporation has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Berchtold Holding – whose portfolio includes surgical tables, equipment booms, and surgical lighting systems ‘geared towards maximising efficiency and safety in operating rooms and ICUs’ – for a purchase price of US $172 million (£103.2 m).

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) has launched what it is dubbing ‘The Facilities Management Professional Standards’ – a ‘global competence model for the profession’ created in consultation with FM stakeholders, experts, and professional standards writers.

Independent building energy management system specialist, ABEC, has launched the ABEC Academy – an engineering training scheme for the building controls sector.

Static Systems Group has launched a software package to help hospital management teams demonstrate high standards of patient care – by collating the response times from patient call to staff attendance at the bedside, and presenting the data in easily understood reports.

Dalkia has marked its 75th anniversary of providing energy to the healthcare sector with a 15-year, £5.4 million contract win at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield that will see the Hospital’s energy plant upgraded.

Biomass boiler specialist, Wood Energy, is celebrating continued UK business growth with the launch of a national Registered Installer Network, which it says will provide highly skilled and trained biomass boiler engineers across the UK.

Dieselec Thistle has been awarded a £1 million project by Balfour Beatty Engineering Services for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust to install a standby power system at the new £70 m Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington.