RECENT NEWS

Over 500 professionals from the healthcare estates and facilities, healthcare engineering, architectural, and associated fields, are expected to gather at the 23rd IFHE Congress at the UCA University in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires in October 2014.

The IFHE’s 2013 Council and Executive Committee Meetings will take place at 9.00 am on 9 and 10 September respectively at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Putrajaya, Malaysia (pictured), just before the BEAM (Biomedical Engineering Association of Malaysia) 2013 Hospital Engineering Conference and Exhibition gets under way at the venue.

Writing in his most recent IHEEM President’s ‘blog’ (viewable at: www.iheempresident.wordpress.com), IHEEM’s President, Greg Markham (who recently took up a new role as technical director, EMCOR Facilities Services), says: “I’ve just returned from Bern, where I attended the IFHE Europe Council Meeting and European Congress hosted by IHS (the Institute of Hospital Engineers Switzerland).

NHS Sustainability Day, now in its second year, and which IHEEM again supported in 2013 (HEJ – February 2013) aims to celebrate the work done by staff within Trusts, hospitals, and healthcare organisations across England, to embed sustainable practices in their everyday working lives.

The theme for this year’s Healthcare Estates Conference is ‘Putting positive energy into healthcare’, ‘reflecting the key issue of cost savings, sustainability, and the changing nature of the healthcare sector’.

The Montefiore Hospital, a stylish recently completed conversion of a former late 19th century-built furniture depository in Hove, East Sussex (HEJ – April 2013), is reportedly the world’s first hospital to incorporate the works of Brian Eno.

Global flooring and finishing brand, Gerflor, has released a new decorative wallcovering range, Mural Calypso.

Andrews Water Heaters has supplied a solar thermal water heating system for domestic hot water for the new Speke Neighbourhood Health Centre in Liverpool.

Privately-owned logistics provider, The Canute Group, has expanded its medical services division with a move to a larger facility in Wokingham.

The Department of Health (DH) is inviting NHS Chief Executives, nonexecutive directors, finance directors, capital managers, and estates professionals, to attend a series of free seminars this month, which will demonstrate how use of the ProCure21+ Construction Framework can help NHS Trusts gain maximum value-for-money.

An elegant building designed by Clayton & Black in 1899 in Hove, initially used as a furniture depository for local department store Hanningtons, and subsequently by Legal & General as offices, has undergone a £35 m transformation into a private hospital for Spire Healthcare.

Betts Environmental, a specialist in in precious metals recovery, claims that many NHS Trusts currently lack the resources to effectively dispose of X-ray films in compliance with the Data Protection Act and that, consequently, they may be missing out on potentially lucrative revenue.

Atlas Copco, the Swedish-headquartered multinational manufacturer of equipment ranging from compressors and air treatment systems, to construction and mining equipment, whose US arm, Atlas Copco USA Holdings, acquired medical gas system specialist, Beacon Medæs, in 2006, last month marked ‘140 years of innovation’, with celebratory activities in over 90 countries.

ECEX has launched a new range of air intake screens designed for all types of HVAC equipment and cooling tower applications. It says protecting air intake equipment can reduce preventative plant maintenance by up to 70 per cent, and prolong the life of HVAC internal air filters by up to 60 per cent.

Pall Corporation’s QPoint Tap Water Filter Assembly, the latest addition to the company’s advanced point-ofuse filter range for protection against waterborne pathogens, offers ‘enhanced features, improved performance, and a longer capsule life of up to two months’.

P4 says it has become the UK’s first independent self-testing lighting manufacturer dedicated exclusively to emergency lighting to gain certification under the BAFE SP203-4 scheme, launched in 2011 by BAFE (British Approvals for Fire Equipment) to provide independent third-party confirmation of supplier competence to provide design, commissioning, and maintenance of such systems.

Life safety equipment supplier, C-TEC, has appointed Peter Frost to its Board of Directors.

BSRIA, the consultancy, test, and research organisation for construction and building services, has published a guide to Flexible Ductwork. Hard copies are now available for £30, or £15 to BSRIA members, while PDF versions cost £30 + VAT, or are downloadable free by BSRIA members.

Balfour Beatty has begun building a new £20 m pharmaceutical manufacturing unit (PMU) for South Devon NHS Foundation Trust in Torbay.

Independent venture capital investor, Albion Ventures, has sold Nelson House, a 32-bed ‘step down’ rehabilitation mental hospital in Gosport, to a joint venture formed by Care UK and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for £8m – reportedly the first transaction involving a joint venture between the NHS and a private healthcare provider to acquire a hospital.