RECENT NEWS

BSI has launched a new Kitemark scheme for visual alarm devices for products manufactured in accordance with EN 54-23:2010.

Barclays Corporate has secured a £3 million asset finance line for InHealth Group to fund the purchase of new diagnostic equipment.

Bailey Maintenance, the specialist maintenance arm of one of the UK’s leading independent building services providers, NG Bailey, has strengthened its senior management team with the appointment of Jon Lucas to the newlycreated position of strategic accounts director.

The primary care sector could save more than £47 million over the next five years via better energy efficiency practices, a new report commissioned by the LIFT Council suggests.

Ecovert FM has completed the new garden room in a ground-level courtyard of Barnet Hospital. Constructed by sister company Icel Group, it offers a healing environment for families of patients at the end of life.

Bristol Maid says its new “eClean” healthcare furniture range “sets the standard in functionality and ease of cleaning”, with the Chesterfield Royal Hospital having already equipped wards with the new eClean bedside cabinet, and clinical trials ongoing at the seven UK “showcase hospitals” (HEJ – June 2009) as part of the Department of Health’s HCAI Technology Innovation Programme launched in 2008.

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.