RECENT NEWS

As part of its continued expansion, specialist water control and washroom accessory manufacturer, Douglas Delabie, has appointed Mike Gillett, who has over 20 years’ experience in commercial sanitaryware, to the newly created role of head of sales.

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust (LCFT) has appointed OCS as its outsourced soft FM provider under a £15 million, five-year contract, that will see OCS deliver catering, cleaning, portering, helpdesk, and waste management services, across the Trust’s estate, which spans Lancashire’s 1,118 square miles.

Multidisciplinary property and construction consultancy practice, Pick Everard, has secured a place on the National NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) framework to supply architecture, quantity surveying, and cost management services, to NHS organisations in England.

The 2012 IHEEM Healthcare Estates annual conference is on track to beat the number of delegates who attended the 2011 event, with over 400 attendees expected this year, say organisers i2i Events Group.

JD McGeown, a Belfast-headquartered electrical and facilities management contractor that has provided ‘precision engineering solutions’ since 1961, serving clients in the healthcare, education, hospitality, retail, arts, community, leisure, and heritage, and residential sectors, has joined IHEEM as a Company Affiliate.

One of IHEEM’s latest new Members is Baljit Bhogal, currently a public health engineer at WSP UK, based in Birmingham, who hopes joining the Institute will help him both to gain new knowledge, and share his experience with others.

IFHE’s new President, Norway’s Ole Rist (see also pages 18 and 19), was a guest at May’s IHEEM Northern Ireland Branch biennial conference and exhibition at the Slieve Donard Hotel and Spa in Newcastle, County Down (HEJ – April 2012), having been invited by Branch Secretary, Joanna Dougherty.

IHEEM has entered into an arrangement with Eastwood Park, via which candidates on the training establishment’s Foundation Degree in Medical Technologies course will, subject to their application to join the Institute being successful, benefit from having their IHEEM membership fees paid for the first two years.

IHEEM’s Council has adopted six key strategic objectives, supported by the Institute’s CEO, Julian Amey, and the management team, as part of a ‘five-year plan’ designed to take IHEEM to the next stage of its development.

A new, fast-track built, medical records and IT building at Bath’s Royal United Hospital (RUH) – see artist’s impression – will be the UK’s first medical facility to harness a building system developed by a Bath architectural practice based around a ‘quick-to-engineer-and-build skeleton’, pre-cast concrete ‘plank’ floors, and a flat internal soffit, said to enable many buildings’ completion in ‘half the time of conventional construction methods’.

The Wandsworth Group is to provide all patient entertainment and bedside computing facilities for the South Australian Health Department, in a £6.5 million deal. One of Australia’s leading telecommunications providers, Telstra, won the tender from the Department for an integrated bedside solution that could provide secure clinical access and modern patient entertainment for over 3,700 beds across 14 hospitals.

A facility said to be the UK’s first dedicated bariatric clinic (the reception area is pictured above), has opened in the grounds of BMI’s The Clementine Churchill Hospital in Harrow.

Thirty-seven members representing 20 International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE) ‘National organisations’ met in Kirkenes, northern Norway on 13 April for the Federation’s 2012 Council Meeting, preceded the previous day by a meeting of the Executive Committee, with both held prior to the official opening, on 14 April, of the latest biennnial IFHE Congress.

The International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE)’s 22nd Annual Congress (HEJ – February 2012), held in April on board the Norwegian coastal steamer, the Hurtigruten m/s Midnatsol, as it journeyed down Norway’s spectacular west coast, saw almost 400 delegates, from 34 countries, enjoy topical international presentations, a varied social programme, and visits to leading hospitals.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have officially opened the new £267 m South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland’s first 100% single-bed NHS hospital.

A specialist supplier and maintainer of medical gas pipeline systems operating primarily in London and the Home Counties, SHJ Hospital Pipelines was founded in 1967 by ex-BOC personnel, and remains a family-owned business ‘at the forefront of medical gas technology’.

A new energy centre which will reportedly cut carbon emissions ‘by almost half’ is to be developed at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. MITIE has been awarded preferred bidder status to develop and operate the centre over a 25-year period; it will be developed in partnership with the NHS Carbon and Energy Fund.

Franke Washroom Systems’ 2012 sales catalogue is now available. Also known as Franke Sissons, the company specialises in high-calibre stainless steel and solid surface washroom solutions for commercial installations, including in healthcare.

PAROC Pro Clad is a new watertight, vapour-permeable ‘sustainable pre-clad insulation solution’ for industrial pipelines and pipe elbows, said to be cost-effective and quick and easy to install.

Premier Interlink (Waco UK), has acquired the intellectual property rights of Britspace, which ceased trading in 2011, including the design rights for Britspace products.