RECENT NEWS

The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, four years ago among the UK’s poorest-performing on infection control, has been awarded the status of the world’s first International Centre of Excellence in infection prevention from Johnson & Johnson company, Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP), after reducing its Clostridium difficile infection rate alone by over 80% in just three years via more rigorous cleaning, and use of an ASP-supplied hydrogen peroxide-based mist dispersion system.

‘Grafted’ into a mature landscape on the fringe of Northumberland’s countryside in Prudhoe, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust’s new Ferndene 40-bedroom residential and day centre integrates children’s mental health and learning disability services for youngsters aged 4-18 for what is reportedly the first time in the UK in a design that ‘engages at different levels with its environment’. The £27 million facility provides assessment and treatment for young people with ‘complex mental health, behavioural, and emotional needs’.

IHEEM is to hold 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.

With the NHS in England’s annual carbon footprint now 21 million tonnes, and the Department of Health having set an ambitious target of a 10 per cent reduction by 2015, and an 80 per cent reduction by 2050, Hochiki Europe stresses that a new generation of LED emergency lighting products can contribute significantly to reducing hospitals’ and other healthcare facilities’ carbon footprint, while also fulfilling a useful extra role.

Trend Controls says that, ‘following very positive feedback’ from its 2011 New Product Introduction Workshops, it is to hold a series of further ‘interactive’ workshops in February and March this year designed to enhance users’ and potential customers’ understanding of how a correctly applied Trend building energy management system will reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions ‘using a range of new products specifically designed for that purpose’.

Pall Medical is to hold a series of free-to-attend educational seminars, dubbed ‘training masterclasses’, across the UK focusing on current guidelines for prevention of waterborne diseases in healthcare premises, and their implications for healthcare estates teams, clinical personnel involved with augmented care such as treating burns victims and ICU patients, microbiologists, and infection control staff.

London’s University College Hospital says it is the UK’s first to introduce a ‘virtual nurse’ to greet staff and patients on arrival and remind them about good infection control practice.

Eastwood Park’s new 2012 course calendar presents a range of training opportunities for all involved in specialist healthcare equipment, engineering, and facilities management.

The British operator of what is said to be the world’s largest fleet of mobile surgical facilities, Vanguard Healthcare, has clocked up its 150,000th patient procedure in one of its 40-plus vehicletowed mobile surgical facilities.

The quest by Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital to standardise all its macerators has seen it select Vernacare’s Vortex. The hospital has over 1,000 beds, and had been using three different macerator types, which had become old and at risk of breaking down.

Modular construction specialist for the healthcare sector, MTX, has been included in the new Modular Building Systems framework awarded by the Government Procurement Service.

An application for Affiliate membership submitted by Bournemouth, UK-based Courtney-Thorne has been accepted by the General Secretary in consultation with the IFHE President and Vice- President.

The President of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering hereby convenes the IFHE General Assembly to be held on the afternoon of Monday 16 April 2012 on board the Norwegian coastal steamer MS Midnatsol during the course of the IFHE 22nd Congress, 14-17 April, organised by the Forum for Sykehusenes Tekniske Ledelse (FSTL) Norway.

In a valedictory written for the January 2012 IFHE newsletter, the Federation’s President for 2010-2012, Yasushi Nagasawa, recollects that, although one of the ‘sub-themes’ of the IFHE 21st Congress in Tokyo in late 2010 had been ‘Safety and Security’, at the time he never anticipated that Japan would be struck by the devastating earthquake that hit its north-east coast in March 2011.

Copies were distributed to IFHE members during December 2011. Attention is drawn to an error on Page 11, ‘IFHE executive committee members’, which inadvertently portrayed Pedro F.

Two submissions were received in response to an IFHE letter dated 13 April 2011 inviting applications to organise the 24th Congress in 2016.

The new St Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway’s first 100 per cent single room healthcare facility, which also incorporates innovative robotic and other modern technologies for activities ranging from linen and drug transportation to waste disposal, will be among several modern healthcare facilities visited by delegates on the IFHE’s 22nd Annual Congress.

Walter Turnbull, a member of the Institute until recently, has died, aged 83. He had a long career in the health service, latterly at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, where former colleagues have fond memories of him.

Alison Ryan, an executive mechanical engineer at DSSR Consulting Engineers in Harrogate, who is an honours Graduate with as BSc in Physics, a Chartered Engineer, and a member (MIHEEM) of both IHEEM and CIBSE, is the new chair of the Institute’s Yorkshire Branch.

Two new members – Derek Chaplin and Mark Richards – have been elected to the IHEEM Council. Derek Chaplin has recently retired from his role as head of Estate Services and chief engineer at the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, having progressed through various posts, including hospital engineer and works manager, to this last full-time position.