RECENT NEWS

The Kent Institute of Medicine & Surgery (KIMS), an £85 m new hospital which the developers say will ‘transform acute and specialist health provision in the county’, had its ‘topping out’ on 11 February.

An engaging new wall within the children’s emergency department at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, has brightened up a long corridor previously painted white that families and children had found ‘daunting’.

The National Association of Care Catering (NACC) and the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA) are promoting the introduction of ‘Nutrition Advocates’ to help raise awareness of the importance of nutrition in all UK social and health care settings.

Cossham Memorial Hospital in Kingswood, Bristol, has re-opened to patients following an extensive £19 m refurbishment by NHS South Gloucestershire.

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, which has worked with the company since 2006, has extended by two years its relationship with international ‘total facilities management provider’, OCS.

Specialist in the integration of operating theatre equipment, Maquet, and Aesculap, which manufactures products ranging from surgical instruments and endoscopic systems to suture material, implants, and sterile containers, have announced a ‘sales partnership’.

Static Systems Group’s latest nurse call ‘app’ harnesses recent advances in VoIP technology to enhance patient-tostaff communication and improve staff efficiency in healthcare establishments.

Electrical safety specialist, Bender UK, is celebrating achieving what is says is the flagship standard for occupational health and safety best practice at its headquarters in Ulverston in Cumbria, which houses product testing facilities, and delivers sales, service, project management, and technical support.

Changes to the Dogs Act 1871 lobbied for by NHS Protect will give greater legal protection to healthcare staff facing dangerous dogs on private property.

Eastwood Park has ‘refreshed’ its water hygiene course portfolio to deliver ‘a more clearly defined and concise learning opportunity’, to equip healthcare estates teams with practical workplace skills in a shorter timeframe.

IHEEM President, Greg Markham, who promised, on taking up the role last year, to visit every UK Institute Branch during his two-year tenure, was special guest at the recent IHEEM London Branch 2013 AGM and accompanying evening get-together at the King Henry VIII Hotel, Bayswater.

IHEEM has issued a ‘Call for Papers’ for the conference at this year’s Healthcare Estates event, which takes place from 8-9 October at Manchester Central. The Institute says it would welcome submissions from healthcare estates professionals ‘in all disciplines’.

Following last month’s announcement that the Institute’s annual conference at Healthcare Estates will be organised by Step Exhibitions, the organisers are busy establishing a number of new initiatives for the year’s top event for healthcare estates and facilities professionals.

Wardray Premise says it can offer ‘a fantastic range of images’ in its Relax & View image collection via backlit wall and ceiling units lit by energy-efficient, low maintenance, flicker-free LEDs.

Wandsworth Group, reportedly the UK’s oldest independent manufacturer of wiring accessories and call systems, has moved to new, 40,000 ft2 customspecified headquarters in its ‘home town’ of Woking.

With a high quality treatment environment acknowledged to significantly speed the recovery of those suffering from mental illness, and the Government recognising the need to update older, outdated facilities.

Off-site and system building solutions specialist, MTX Contracts, has completed a new £2.2 million ‘state-ofthe- art’ modular mortuary facility at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in North Wales.

IHEEM and Health Estate Journal will be supporting ‘Design in Mental Health’, a new networking event being held from 14-15 May at Birmingham’s National Motorcycle Museum linking those who design, construct, and manage, mental healthcare facilities, with end-users.

Five companies – Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Vinci, Willmott Dixon, and Kier – have submitted tenders to the West London Mental Health NHS Trust in a bid to become main contractor for the Broadmoor Hospital redevelopment.

It has been an issue of concern for me for some time that the fast-track development to technological advances has left some of the fundamental basics behind, and caused risk to patients on numerous occasions.