RECENT NEWS

IHEEM members are invited to apply for the position of chair of the Institute’s Education and Training Committee, which advises the Council on education and training policy and develops and implements educational and training initiatives.

This year’s annual Architects for Health (AfH) debate, taking place on 17 February at the Strangers’ Room at the Reform Club, in London’s Pall Mall, will see discussed the motion: “This house believes that architects know more about sustainability than engineers”.

With the Department of Health having published its revised HTM 07-01 technical memorandum on healthcare waste management last month, and the Environment Agency set to obtain new powers which IHEEM says “could entirely change” the enforcement landscape for waste management regulation by the year-end, the Institute is staging a further seminar on this key topic for estates and facilities professionals in Bristol next month.

Forty-five papers were presented in two separate streams at the recent IFHE International Congress in Tokyo, where the keynote address was give by a key World Health Organisation (WHO) figure with the daunting responsibility for a budget of $130 billion covering 1.8 billion people in 37 countries, IHEEM’s IFHE representative Andy Wavell reports.

Greg Markham FIHEEM, chair of IHEEM’s Membership Committee, a Chartered Engineer, and technical services director at G4S Integrated Services, will give a chief engineer’s view of the key risks related to hard facilities management services provision, while a Health and Safety Laboratory speaker will cover the legislative environment, at two IHEEM FM seminars being held In London and Leeds during April.

Alongside an expanded depth and breadth of content, this year’s Healthcare Estates IHEEM conference and exhibition (1-2 November at Manchester Central) will incorporate more conference sessions with what the organisers dub “a visionary element”, looking ahead at what estates and facilities personnel might expect in the future.

A Trend BEMS supplied and engineered by NEA Teknik AB is helping to ensure the wellbeing of critically ill patients in a recently opened unit at Sweden’s Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg via accurate control of environmental conditions.

MyPath, a new online recording system developed by a partnership of Institutions in a project led by Engineering UK (and now overseen by the Engineering Council), will enable members to log on via a link on the IHEEM website and record progress with their Continuing Professional Development, the lessons learned, and the benefits gained.

The Institute has undertaken a review of its Code of Professional Conduct and Disciplinary Regulations by reference to the guidelines, Code, and Disciplinary Regulations recommended by the Engineering Council and benchmarked across other professional engineering institutes.

An IHEEM seminar providing guidance on electrical installation for healthcare premises being held in Leeds next month and in London in early March will consider, among other topics, current regulations and legislation, and the first amendment to BS 7671: 2008 (17th edition Wiring Regulations), due to come into force on 1 January, 2012.

Members will by now have received their notice of year 2011 membership subscriptions and any additional professional registration subscriptions if appropriate.

IHEEM’s Council is seeking to fill two interim vacancies, and is keen to receive applications from Institute members in the East Anglia and South West Branch areas who wish to be considered, in accordance with its Articles of Association. The IHEEM governing Council holds the Institute in “trust” for current and future beneficiaries, and has responsibility for managing its business.

Working with you to develop your career” is a strapline familiar to the many visitors to the IHEEM website since its October 2010 launch. As a practical example of the way IHEEM is seeking to foster opportunities for members to develop their careers, the Institute is launching an international travel bursary award for 2011.

The Institute has issued a “Call for proposals” (see also “flyer” within this issue) for this year’s Healthcare Estates event, which is taking place at Manchester Central on 1-2 November.

Firmly in the tradition of past IHEEM annual conferences, the presentations at Healthcare Estates 2011 in November, themed “Improving healthcare outcomes through innovation”, will reflect both the impact of changing thinking on the way healthcare should be provided in the future, and the economic challenges against which estates and facilities personnel must fulfil their onerous role.

A “green power generation” initiative at Solihull Hospital that will reportedly cut carbon dioxide emissions by 45% has won recognition. The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust and technology partner ENER-G received the Combined Heat and Power Association’s (CHPA) Public Sector Award for their trigeneration scheme.

Simon Burns, Minister of State for Health, has officially opened Dudley Primary Care Trust’s Brierley Hill Health & Social Care Centre in the West Midlands (HEJ – September 2010).

A cabinet that uses “patentprotected 360 degree fullbeam UVC decontamination technology” to disinfect medical equipment in 90 seconds has been successful trialled by the University College London (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust.

Vanguard Healthcare, which claims to design and operate the world’s largest fleet (38 in all) of mobile healthcare facilities,

A “new and unique” dental instrument decontamination training course which can be completed online is now available from Eastwood Park Training.