RECENT NEWS

Commercial showering and washroom control specialist, Rada, is urging ‘a holistic approach to handwashing in the fight against infection’ with a new four-step guide to ‘assist healthcare professionals in specifying and maintaining the right handwashing applications for their requirements’.

The recent Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) Awards 2012 saw 22-year-old Philip Budd, who joined Trend Controls’ Attitude Apprenticeship Scheme in its launch year in 2008, recognised as Student of the Year.

Steam system specialist, Spirax Sarco, won praise for its commitment to investment in new UK-based production and R&D facilities when Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, visited its Runnings Road, Cheltenham site, where the company has invested £25 million modernising its manufacturing facilities and expanding into a five-acre site connected to the original facility by a tunnel.

Fire risk assessments (see also fire safety-related articles, pages 37-42 of this issue) addressing life safety and/or property protection, fire safety audits, and fire safety training, are among the services offered by the not-for-profit organisation, the Fire Protection Association (FPA).

Representatives from exhibitors at this October’s Healthcare Estates 2012 conference and exhibition met recently at Manchester Central with the exhibition’s organisers, Step Exhibitions, to provide feedback on how they felt the exhibition could be improved, discuss how to achieve one of the key aims – attracting more NHS and other public sector visitors, and hear more about some of the key features planned.

Eastwood Park will be running two fire safety courses this month – ‘Firecode for healthcare premises’ (11-13 June), and ‘Fire risk assessment for healthcare premises’ (25-27 June). Paul Beech, Fire Safety tutor, Eastwood Park Training says: “It is common for healthcare managers to have their own fire safety staff undertake fire risk assessments in complex premises; yet many have only limited experience in this area, and few have formal qualifications.

The Department of Health says around 1,500 cancer patients annually will benefit from ‘a cutting edge cancer treatment’ – proton beam therapy – which will be available at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust’s Oak Road Patient Treatment Centre in Manchester, and at University College London Hospital, from 2017, thanks to an investment of ‘up to £250 million’ by the NHS.

Anne Maguire, a highly experienced estates and facilities professional and Chartered Engineer who is particularly committed to ensuring that both new entrants to the field, and seasoned EFM personnel, continue to develop good skills, has been appointed as chair of the Institute’s Education and Training Committee

The recent AGM of IHEEM’s North-West Branch was followed by a talk by Swegon on air terminals and air handling units, with particular emphasis on energy performance, compliance with part L of the Building Regulations, and occupant comfort.

The recent AGM of IHEEM’s North-West Branch was followed by a talk by Swegon on air terminals and air handling units, with particular emphasis on energy performance, compliance with part L of the Building Regulations, and occupant comfort.

The Healthcare Estates conference 2012, taking place at Manchester Central from 9-10 October, will focus on ‘the most critical aspects of healthcare estates’, with the programme combining seven plenary sessions and 24 stream sessions to provide ‘broad and deep content’.

As detailed in May’s HEJ, the annual IHEEM awards have been ‘revised and reviewed’, and, from this year, are being opened up ‘to give the whole of the healthcare industry supply chain – rather than just the Institute’s members’ – the opportunity to participate.

With the recent focus on, and extensive media coverage of, the safety of hospital water systems (HEJ – May 2012, and pages 23-27 of this issue), two IHEEM ‘masterclass seminars’ being held in Leeds and London next month, entitled ‘The Invisible Threat’, will offer expert guidance and advice on maintaining a safe, high quality water supply and, for example, minimising the risk of waterborne infection to patients and staff.

Now in its 10th year, Healthcare Estates, the annual IHEEM (Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management) conference and exhibition, is an event that focuses on the design, construction, maintenance, and management, of the healthcare estate and healthcare facilities.

A partnership between Chelmsford City Council, Harlow District Council, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, and Anglia Ruskin University, is predicted to grow the UK medical technology sector by £1.2bn and generate approximately 12,500 jobs via the creation of a new three-site ‘MedTech’ campus in Essex, where organisations ranging from start-ups to ‘large corporates’ will be able to develop and perfect new medical technology.

Facilities management, and estates and property management software specialist, Micad, says it has spent the past three years engineering and perfecting a bespoke solution for estates and facilities professionals seeking accurate information on the use of space within buildings on their estate.

Micad says its software systems generated considerable interest at this year’s HefmA exhibition, with particular attention being given to its new Help Desk and Room Booking and Utilisation Software.

Façade specialists, Wicona, and glazing manufacturer, Fendor, have jointly launched a sliding aluminium window system specifically designed for anti-ligature applications.

The Leadbitter Group has completed the £29 million second phase of the Institute of Life Science and the £22 m Centre for NanoHealth at Swansea University.

Rigel Medical analysers have been specified for a South African project designed to improve standards of medical device safety and performance inspection.