RECENT NEWS

The Engineering Council’s 2013 survey of professionally registered engineers and technicians indicates that those holding Engineering Technician (EngTech), Incorporated Engineer (IEng), and Chartered Engineer (CEng) titles are still enjoying pay increases and low levels of unemployment.

Asteral, the vendor-independent managed equipment and managed maintenance service provider to the NHS, has been awarded a place on the North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) Framework for Medical Equipment Maintenance.

BSRIA Instrument Solutions has added the TSI PresSura range of room pressure solutions to its portfolio of instrumentation suitable for healthcare facilities.

Howorth Air Technology’s pharmaceutical division is working within the integrated team for Cowlin Construction on the project to build South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s new multi-million pound Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Centre (PMU), near Paignton, scheduled for completion late in 2014.

Specialist healthcare training centre, Eastwood Park, says its recent awarding of a £475,000 grant from the Local Enterprise Partnership and the West of England ‘Going for Growth’ fund will assist it both in safeguarding existing jobs, and creating a number of new roles.

Portakabin Hire has delivered a complex interim health building for emergency care in just six weeks – two weeks ahead of programme – to reduce the pressure on the Accident and Emergency Department at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

During November the IFHE Australian Executive Committee member, Darryl Pitcher, travelled to Jakarta in Indonesia to support the good work of IFHE ‘A Member’ HATIMI, where he attended a national seminar.

Potential speakers for the 23rd IFHE World Congress, which will be held at the UCA University in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, from 12-16 October this year (HEJ – February, May, and August 2013), are reminded that abstracts must be received, via the online submission form on the IFHE website (www.ifhe2014buenosaires.com.ar/ papers.htm), by no later than 27 March.

IFHE Past-President, Yasushi Nagasawa, and a party of 21 of his healthcare engineering/architecture and planning students from Tokyo University, enjoyed a day touring some of central London’s most famous healthcare buildings, and sightseeing, in December.

A former Young Member Group Chairman of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers Hong Kong Branch (CIBSE HK), and former ECS Chairman of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Hong Kong (IET HK), has become a Fellow of IHEEM.

A recent North West Branch technical seminar hosted by Whitecroft Lighting in Ashton-under-Lyne, and chaired by Cundall Engineering Consultancy, focused on ‘Biodynamic lighting and advances in LED technology’, writes Branch Secretary, Tony Winter, energy and environmental manager, Technical Services, at the Tameside Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Thirty-eight members of IHEEM’s Northern Ireland Branch recently enjoyed a memorable two-day visit to Switzerland, with a tour of the Geberit Headquarters, in Rapperswil, Zurich, the Branch chair, Joanna Dougherty, writes.

This year’s Healthcare Estates Conference, Exhibition, and Dinner, taking place from 7-8 October at Manchester Central (GMEX), will be ‘even bigger’, the organisers, Step Exhibitions, say, with the outline conference programme set to be announced in April, and ‘further details on the positive impact for exhibitors’ due to be unveiled next month.

Work has begun on a new £6 million hybrid endovascular theatre suite at Manchester Royal Infirmary, due for completion this April.

Brandon Medical has launched a range of LED examination lights that it believes are the most advanced such products available worldwide.

BeaconMedaes says ‘stringent earthquake testing’ has seen it become the world’s first medical air equipment supplier to have its products rated ‘earthquake-proof’.

The Department of Health has published revised HBN guidance on the technical design and output specifications of windows and associated hardware.

Fabricator of windows, doors, curtain walling, and fencing systems, Britplas, says NHS Trusts and private healthcare companies across the UK, and other healthcare providers worldwide, entrust the company with the provision and installation of healthcare windows.

Capita has been appointed by NHS Scotland’s Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) as survey partners for Phase 5 in the implementation of an estates asset management system for the NHS estate in Scotland.

Crown Commercial Service (CSS) formerly known as the Government Procurement Service, and the NHS London Procurement Partnership (LPP), have reintroduced the Energy Managers Forum for the NHS in London and the surrounding regions, ‘to tackle the challenges of energy demand management and cost control’.