RECENT NEWS

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.

Healthcare waste management company GW Butler has secured a three-year contract with Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust which will see it provide a comprehensive waste management service.

To assist potential applicants, the Engineering Council has developed a public database of approved qualifications and programmes which contribute to professional registration as Engineering Technician (EngTech) or ICT Technician (ICTTech).

ANS Group has won a contract worth over £1 million to “revolutionise the IT estate” at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

Cornwall-based 20/20 has completed a large scale “wayfinding” project for the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro (RCHT). The company replaced the existing “out of date” wayfinding system with new visual directions that separate the site into four colour-coded zones.

Atlas Copco, which already has a major UK presence in the field through Derbyshire-based BeaconMedaes, has agreed to acquire the Medical Gas Solutions business of Abingdonheadquartered Penlon – which supplies medical gas systems, medical vacuum equipment, and pipeline components to hospitals – subject to competition authority clearance.

The Institute’s Scottish branch has published online, on its dedicated page on the IHEEM website (www.iheem.org.uk/Scotland), a brief review of a number of successful recent events it has held to support members in their continued professional development.

IHEEM has just appointed a new events & education manager, Siân Barker, who was previously events manager for the Mineral Products Association (MPA) a trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, lime, mortar, and silica sand industries.

One of IHEEM’s newest Members from overseas is Chartered Engineer Khairul Shah Zainal, who has been employed by Qatar Petroleum since 2008, and is currently senior project engineer on the SIDRA Medical Research Centre (SMRC) project in Doha in Qatar.

Chris Northey, a member of IHEEM’s London branch who, having begun his career as a plumbing apprentice in July 1987 with his father’s firm, is today Public Health Design Group head at London-based consulting engineers BDSP Partnership, last month visited Buckingham Palace to collect the City & Guilds Prince Philip Medal 2011 from the Duke of Edinburgh.