RECENT NEWS

An “intelligent” window control package that can be fully integrated within its building energy management systems to maximise natural ventilation’s benefits has been introduced by Trend Control Systems.

SAS International’s new “Drop & Slide” suspended metal ceiling system provides a flush finish, “like many competitor systems”, but differs in its “ingenious way of allowing access to the ceiling void for essential maintenance”.

To combat chemical-resistant bacteria, viruses, fungi, and spores which can cause hospital infection, Proventec Healthcare now offers OxyPharm, a new “area bio-disinfection solution” claimed to be “fast-acting, highly mobile, and low cost”, and “effective against all potentially harmful micro-organisms”, organically breaking them down to water and oxygen molecules, “without risk to humans”.

Yorkshire based Intaview has launched a new privacy and vision control system that utilises a twin-film concept “to provide a superior performance, and offer greater vision for privacy vision panels in office partitions, windows, doors, screens, and corridors”.

FireCell from EMS Fire & Security is reportedly the UK’s first fully certified EN54 Part 25-compliant wireless fire detection solution.

A heavy duty electronic push-button lock that has achieved fire safety and durability testing to American National Standards Institute (ANSI) grade 1 – the highest accreditation level, confirming its robustness against heavy use, has been introduced by Codelocks.

A glazing system that harnesses “one of the world’s lightest, most effective insulating materials” has been added to the range of architectural rooflight and glazing system options from Brett Martin Daylight Systems.

Ansell Healthcare’s Revised Guide to EN Standards for Gloves provides comprehensive information about the legally binding Framework Directives 89/391/EEC and 89/656/EEC, and PPE Directive 89/686/EEC.

Creating comfortable surroundings for patients and their visitors is an important part of designing healthcare spaces, emphasises LG Hausys, designer and manufacturer of solid surfacing material, HI-MACS.

Rydon has successfully completed work on Optegra facilities in Manchester, Bradford, and Leeds, providing fully operational ophthalmology hospitals.

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHF Foundation Trust (UHMBT) reports “significant improvements” in its staff efficiency after incorporating the Vocera badge into its communications system.

Mansell, as a member of the Balfour Beatty Group supply chain and framework delivery team, has been appointed as ProCure21+ partner on a four-year refurbishment framework for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, potentially worth up to £25 million.

The rate at which electronic care records systems are being put in place across the NHS under the National Programme for IT is falling far below expectations, and the core aim – that every patient should have an electronic care record – will not now be achieved, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report.

The introduction of microfibre cleaning at London’s Heart Hospital, part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has seen the 100-bed hospital install Electrolux washing and drying machines in a new 29 m2 laundry, previously a laundry store and part of the mail and porters’ lodge.

VINCI Park has opened the new car park it has designed and built at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital (HEJ – April 2010).

Twenty-one operating theatres at the new four-storey Peterborough City Hospital, completed late last year at a cost of £289 million, and now dominating the local skyline with its 13 wards, 612 beds, and 18 operating theatres, feature clinical medical gas pendants, operating theatre lights, surgeons’ theatre control panels, and examination lights, from Starkstrom.

Kaba Door Systems has been acquired by Japanese company Nabtesco Corporation, and is now to be known as Gilgen Door Systems UK.

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.