RECENT NEWS

BSI (the British Standards Institution) has published a new standard /code of practice for facility designers, owners, and operators to ensure that design takes account of the expected performance of the facility in use.

Partners Heart of Birmingham teaching Primary Care Trust, NHS South Birmingham, BaS LIFT, and Prime, have signed contracts to deliver the new £13 million Attwood Green Health Centre to replace Colston Health Centre on Bath Row in Birmingham.

Managed equipment services (MES) provider to the NHS, Asteral, was recently awarded a contract by University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust to deliver digital breast screening technology housed in three mobile units.

A British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) poll suggests that almost half of organisations are unprepared for an ageing workforce, while facilities managers are “overlooking” the wider issues of staff of different ages.

A BBC news story last month painted an alarming picture of the condition of the English NHS estate, with health reporter Nick Triggle citing Department of Health 2009/10 statistics suggesting that 17% of this occupied estate was “not functionally suitable for use”.

Airedale Hospital in Keighley has selected Brandon Medical’s Quasar HD-LED operating theatre lights as part of a refurbishment of a number of its operating theatres. Theatre manager Ken Charles says the product is “by far the best operating theatre light we have ever used”.

Envirommental Water Systems (EWS), the Cheddar, Somerset-based water purification, water recovery, and process filtration specialist, has been purchased by Amplio Filtration Holdings for an undisclosed sum.

Gerflor’s Taralay Premium, a durable, easy-to-maintain vinyl flooring solution, has been laid in a number of rooms in the main hospital building, and in the Maternal and Foetal Wellbeing Centre, at London’s Portland Hospital.

Eastwood Park has recruited three new staff – (from left) Steve Skarratt, training manager (Delivery); Laurence South, sales manager, and Eddie Giles, training consultant.

Clinical haematology patients at Southampton General Hospital will receive high quality air thanks to a plant room engineered by consultancy Henderson Green. The hospital’s new Clinical Haematology Impatient extension has a dedicated space on the floor below which houses the clean air plant.

Serco Health has appointed Paul Forden, whose previous experience includes spells as director of finance and information and acting CEO at London’s King’s College Hospital, and director of operations at the Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust, as MD of its new Hospital Transformation business group.

Yorkon recently craned into position at Colchester General Hospital the final modules, all built off site, of a new paediatrics department, elective care centre, and surgical ward, as part of a £20 m ProCure21 project – the largest development in the hospital’s recent history.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust says a combined heat and power (CHP) solution has underpinned a £1.5 m cut in its annual energy spend and a 20% year-on-year reduction in its projected carbon dioxide emissions.

A Secure Power 1600 generating set, control panel, and ancillary components from Dale Power Solutions have been installed at a North Yorkshire hospital while the company refurbishes the facility’s existing two generators (originally supplied by it), upgrading the units and installing new control systems that will give the hospital “greater flexibility” over its future back-up power use.

A series of 13 energy management seminars held this year UK-wide by Trend Control Systems designed to educate building owners on the role of building energy management systems (BEMS) in relation to energy management, and how such equipment can help them reduce energy use within their buildings, was attended by over 1,000 end-users.

Bacteria levels on lift buttons are three times higher than on public toilet seats, University of Arizona research for antibacterial product protection supplier Microban has shown.

Mansell has won a £2.2 million contract to redevelop Stratton Hospital near Bude. Community 1st Cornwall is managing the project for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT. .

AFOS has recently won new orders worth over £1.3 m, having been selected to supply new mortuaries to the new Pembury Hospital, Tunbridge Wells, Pinderfields Hospital in West Yorkshire, and Blackpool’s Royal Victoria Hospital.

Following its acquisition by telecare and remote healthcare equipment supplier Tynetec earlier this year this year (HEJ – September 2010) Aid Call, the wireless nurse call technology specialist, has moved from its former Ashburton site to new premises at . . .

Glasgow’s PFI-procured New Stobhill Hospital, designed by Reiach and Hall Architects, has won this year’s Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award, presented at the British Construction Industry Awards (BCIA) in London. Sponsored jointly by CABE, the Office of Government Commerce, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Award is a special category at the BCIA event.