RECENT NEWS

Delegate places are still available for this year’s IFHE 22nd Annual Congress, to be held from 13-17 April on board the Norwegian coastal steamer, the Hurtigruten MS Midnatsol, as it journeys south down Norway’s scenic west coast.

NHS Protect, which incorporates some functions of the former NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS), and provides policy and operational guidance on management of security within the NHS in England.

Girbau UK has added enhanced LOGI PRO control to its ‘popular’ 6 Series washer range to offer ‘even greater operational flexibility and lower consumption of energy and water’ for commercial on-premise laundry applications including hospitals and care homes.

In the introduction to the OR Networks-supplied article, Paddington hospital has ‘world first’ in AV in the November 2011 issue of HEJ. .

BAM Construction in the North West is to deliver new facilities for Aintree Hospital in Liverpool.

Manufacturer and supplier of float valves, Keraflo, has launched an electronic tank management system that it says provides, via one integrated ‘package’ for the first time, a simple way to monitor water level and temperature in cold water storage tanks.

Royal Philips Electronics has opened a dedicated research facility at its Eindhoven-based Research Laboratories which will develop ‘healing environment concepts’ that ‘harness intelligent technology’ to accelerate and improve treatment outcomes, while simultaneously reducing the stress and anxiety associated with hospitalisation.

Creating comfortable surroundings for patients and their visitors is an important part of designing healthcare spaces, emphasises LG Hausys, designer and manufacturer of solid surfacing material, HI-MACS.

Independent ice and snow clearance company, Nationwide Gritting Services (NGS), says its has been keeping roads, car parks, and pedestrian walkways clear of ice and snow at hospitals and healthcare complexes for many years, ‘offering a guaranteed service, no matter how severe the winter weather’.

According to Stuart Davies, of Hochiki Europe, treating a fire detection system as a ‘fit and forget’ part of a building’s infrastructure can have disastrous consequences. He explains the key part that regular maintenance of such systems plays in ensuring correct operation, and avoiding unwanted alarms.

One of the most recent work-based learning initiatives introduced by Eastwood Park is the development of a Certificate in the decontamination of reusable medical instruments.

Mike Beever, head of PFI, commercial, and contract planning, at the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was recently selected as the winner of a free IHEEM seminar place as one of those who provided valuable information to the Institute by completing a questionnaire, incorporated into the “carrier sheet” of September’s HEJ, seeking readers’ views on future seminar topics and locations.

Kenneth John Eatwell, a member of the Institute for 48 years, and one of the original subscribers to the formation of the Institute of Hospital Engineers in the 1960s, has died, aged 90. His career started in Swindon, where he was an apprentice fitter-turner with the Great Western Railway Company.

To further assist prospective members when applying to join IHEEM, the Institute has launched an online application form for individual membership which supplements the online affiliate application forms already available.

IHEEM President, and director of NHS Estates & Facilities Scotland, Paul Kingsmore, opened proceedings by welcoming a capacity audience of delegates who had travelled the length and breadth of the country to listen to presentations from industry leaders.

SmartGlass International, the global manufacturer of electronically switchable glass, has joined IHEEM as a Company Affiliate Member.

German-headquartered GROHE is said to be Europe’s largest, and the world’s leading, single-brand manufacturer and supplier of sanitary fittings. GROHE UK, the group’s UK arm, has recently become an IHEEM Company Affiliate Member.

IHEEM is keen to encourage suitably experienced personnel from a wide range of engineering, microbiology, quality assurance, or sterile services backgrounds interested in becoming an IHEEM-registered AE (D) to undertake the Advanced Course in Sterilising Technology (ACIST).

An IHEEM Scottish Branch St Andrew’s Day lecture being held at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley on 30 November (12.15 pm for a 12.30 pm start), will see Alan Seabourne, project director on the New South Glasgow Hospitals Development Programme, describe the experience of procuring and operating an NEC 3 contract on the project.

IHEEM has confirmed that the seminars planned for early next year on decontamination of medical instruments, and infection/pest control (HEJ – October 2011), will both be held in February.