RECENT NEWS

The British Safety Council has launched an e-learning version of its well-established ‘IOSH Working Safely’ course – ‘designed to provide people at any level, in any sector, with a sound grounding in the essentials of health and safety’.

Brandon Medical has won €1 million of research funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme, which it will use to lead a collaborative research consortium to develop future solid state lighting technologies for healthcare buildings.

Two new laparoscopic paediatric operating theatres at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital have been equipped with Karl Storz Endoscopy’s latest integrated theatre system – the Karl Storz OR1 NEO.

A specialist in lifts, materials management, and waste handling systems, for the healthcare sector, and the manufacturer of an energy-saving voltage optimisation system, are the latest to become IHEEM Company Affiliate Members.

IHEEM is seeking candidates to chair its Ventilation Technology Platform, Advisory Group for Architecture and Design of the Built Environment, and Advisory Group for Specialist Engineering.

With the sustainability of UK healthcare facilities ever more in focus, the Institute was pleased to support last month’s NHS Sustainability Day of Action, at which London’s UCLH NHS Foundation Trust and the NHS Sustainability Unit encouraged NHS staff to think more about what can be done to make the NHS more sustainable (HEJ – February and March 2012).

The Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle, County Down, is ‘the exciting new venue’ for the 2012 Northern Ireland IHEEM Conference, which takes place from 23-24 May.

An increase in high-level Department of Health and Government representation, ‘more distinct and stronger’ plenary sessions, and more ‘practically-focused’ stream sessions, will be among the features of the conference at this October’s Healthcare Estates event in Manchester, say organisers, EMAP.

Construction is due to start this month of a new hospital that the co-funders say will provide Kent’s only cardiothoracic and neurosurgery tertiary care beds. The Kent Institute of Medicine and Surgery (KIMS) is to be built on a seven-acre site close to the M20 near Maidstone, and has been five years in planning.

The Government’s controversial, and, in some quarters, much criticised, Health and Social Care Bill could pass onto the statute books by Easter given the required Royal Assent after a Labour call for MPs to postpone their final consideration of the major changes proposed until an assessment of the potential risks had been published and scrutinised was defeated in the House of Commons on 21 March by 82 votes. The Commons debate followed the House of Lords’ approval of the Bill on 19 March, although, since the original version was published, there have been around 1,000 amendments, including 374 suggested by the Second Chamber.

Europe’s newest hospital, and the UK’s largest ever PPP-funded and operated healthcare facility – the £650 million Royal London in Whitechapel, has opened its doors– the successful culmination of years of hard work and planning which has seen doctors and nurses involved in the design process throughout, working under the guidance of a Trust New Hospitals Development Team to create the optimal healing environment.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced that over £330 million in extra funding will be made available for ‘state-of-the art’ equipment and buildings ‘to give more than two and a half million patients better care and services’.

Two IHEEM members are to be congratulated on recently being awarded Engineering Council CEng status.

A number of new initiatives are being put in place at this year’s IHEEM Healthcare Estates exhibition and conference, with both visitors from the NHS, and other public sector attendees, set to benefit from a variety of incentives and exclusive opportunities, including the chance to secure ‘VIP’ status when they attend the flagship IHEEM annual event, which takes place this year from 9-10 October at Manchester Central.

Peter Jackson, a member of the Institute for 58 years, and the son of one of the original founding members of the Institute of Hospital Engineers, died on 11 January 2012, aged 85.

IHEEM has announced that it will be holding two seminars on ‘Sustainability’ in April and May this year. Speakers already confirmed for the ‘Plan Today for A Sustainable Tomorrow’ events, taking place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel on 19 April, and on 16 May at a London venue to be confirmed, include Phil Nedin, an Institute Past President, Chartered Engineer, and director of Arup’s global healthcare business.

MITIE chief executive, Ruby McGregor- Smith, recipient of a CBE in this year’s New Year’s Honours List (HEJ – February 2012), and one of only a small number of women CEOs in a FTSE 100 company, will address the British Institute of Facilities Management’s (BIFM) ‘ThinkFM’ conference this summer.

ADT Fire and Security has provided a sophisticated fire detection system to the new £300 million Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Stirlingshire, Scotland’s largest NHS construction ever built, with 4,000 rooms, 25 wards, and 860 beds.

Sixteen successful candidates selected as finalists in the 2012 Architects for Health (AfH) Student Design Awards recently participated in a week of seminars, tutored studios, and site visits in London, including to St Thomas’s Hospital in south London.

Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton has awarded the contract for its new threestorey ward building to BAM Construction. Work on the £34 million centre will start on March 5 this year, with the first patients expected to be treated towards late Autumn 2013.