RECENT NEWS

A-Gas International (HEJ – May 2010), one of the largest providers of specialist industrial gases and chemicals, is set to “execute a rapid expansion strategy in the UK and internationally” after securing a significant investment from mid-market private equity firm LDC, in a deal worth £70 million.

The British Medical Association, in partnership with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), and the Department of Health, has launched “Ethical Procurement for Health”, a practical online toolkit to help UK health organisations improve the working conditions in which goods for the NHS are produced.

A new hospital cleaning standard designed to provide public assurance that risks associated with hospital cleanliness have been fully assessed, and that nationally agreed procedures are in place to ensure hospitals are clean and safe for patients, will be launched this month at the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals’ National Conference in Telford.

Healthcare waste management company GW Butler has secured a three-year contract with Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust which will see it provide a comprehensive waste management service.

To assist potential applicants, the Engineering Council has developed a public database of approved qualifications and programmes which contribute to professional registration as Engineering Technician (EngTech) or ICT Technician (ICTTech).

ANS Group has won a contract worth over £1 million to “revolutionise the IT estate” at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

Cornwall-based 20/20 has completed a large scale “wayfinding” project for the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro (RCHT). The company replaced the existing “out of date” wayfinding system with new visual directions that separate the site into four colour-coded zones.

Atlas Copco, which already has a major UK presence in the field through Derbyshire-based BeaconMedaes, has agreed to acquire the Medical Gas Solutions business of Abingdonheadquartered Penlon – which supplies medical gas systems, medical vacuum equipment, and pipeline components to hospitals – subject to competition authority clearance.

The Institute’s Scottish branch has published online, on its dedicated page on the IHEEM website (www.iheem.org.uk/Scotland), a brief review of a number of successful recent events it has held to support members in their continued professional development.

IHEEM has just appointed a new events & education manager, Siân Barker, who was previously events manager for the Mineral Products Association (MPA) a trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, lime, mortar, and silica sand industries.

One of IHEEM’s newest Members from overseas is Chartered Engineer Khairul Shah Zainal, who has been employed by Qatar Petroleum since 2008, and is currently senior project engineer on the SIDRA Medical Research Centre (SMRC) project in Doha in Qatar.

Chris Northey, a member of IHEEM’s London branch who, having begun his career as a plumbing apprentice in July 1987 with his father’s firm, is today Public Health Design Group head at London-based consulting engineers BDSP Partnership, last month visited Buckingham Palace to collect the City & Guilds Prince Philip Medal 2011 from the Duke of Edinburgh.

The impact of the changes in the NHS as a result of the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill, and the financial challenges facing public sector spending and resource, will dominate this year’s Healthcare Estates conference (at Manchester Central from 1-2 November), promises the organiser.

Fendor, working with the consultants and main contractor, has developed a window system that it claims “offers a revolution in terms of both performance and the living environment” for a new secure unit at Nottinghamshire’s Rampton high secure hospital

Kaba Door Systems Limited has been acquired by Japanese company Nabtesco Corporation, and will from now on be known as Gilgen Door Systems UK.

BeaconMedæs and Addmaster have combined their expertise to launch what they say is the UK’s first medical gas terminal unit to offer inherent antimicrobial protection as standard.

The Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association (HVCA) has appointed Blane Judd as its chief executive designate. The post was created following the decision of current chief executive Robert Higgs OBE to retire at the Association’s AGM on 21 July this year (HEJ – April 2011).

Recent questioning of 21 buyers from public sector-funded healthcare organisations on changing attitudes to procurement since last autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review reveals that, although under half have had to cancel construction work, a third plan abandoning framework arrangements in a bid to cut costs, and 40 per cent plan asking contractors to cut prices.

Engineering consultancy Henderson Green, which specialises in renewable technologies, has designed services including heat recovery ventilation, industrial laboratory gases, and laboratory and office variable refrigerant flow comfort cooling, for a £6.3 million extension to the Southampton Centre for Biomedical Research at Southampton General Hospital.

British asbestos campaigners have launched a national survey exploring general awareness and understanding of asbestos in buildings, and the regulations designed to protect UK workers from exposure to it.