RECENT NEWS

Galliford Try has been awarded a £22 million contract to build a new health centre in Coventry as part of its LIFT framework partnering agreement with Coventry Care Partnership.

With the recent change of government, Andrew Lansley CBE, MP for South Cambridgeshire, and former Shadow Health Secretary, has been appointed Secretary of State for Health.

The final phase of the £45 million New South Wing at Northern Ireland’s Altnagelvin Hospital has been completed. Designed by HLM Architects in association with Hall Black Douglas, and built by Farrans (Construction), it is the most recent element of new build clinical accommodation in a £150 million masterplan of redevelopment works to upgrade and provide new facilities.

The impact that good building design and a “positive healthcare environment” can have on those suffering from mental illness, and the challenges facing architects, planners, and estates and facilities teams with the increasing dispersal of mental healthcare from large institutional sites to multiple community locations, will be addressed at an IHEEM-supported BBH conference at the Holborn Bars in London on 30 June.

The IHEEM “Planning for Uncertainty – the role of practical risk management in estates” seminar,

The Institute is pleased to welcome as a new Member George McDonagh, who, having worked for two decades in hospital central sterile services departments as a maintenance engineer, later becoming a Test Person, is now passing on his knowledge as a lecturer (and validation engineer) at the University of Glasgow Dental School.

IHEEM now has a second membership officer, with the recruitment of Kate Newman (pictured), who will “job share” in the role with existing staff member Clair Sandford.

The management of large, and often complex, water systems in healthcare facilities, and the need to maintain excellent hygiene, will be discussed at three IHEEM “Water systems” seminars in Leeds on 8 September, Birmingham on 22 September, and London on 10 November.

Having completed her first ever London Marathon on 25 April, raising almost £1,000 (including gift aid) for Macmillan Cancer Support, the Institute’s accounts manager Annabelle Morgan (HEJ – April 2010), has already put her name in the ballot for next year’s race.

With the opening of October’s Healthcare Estates 2010 event at its new Manchester Central venue (pictured) just months away, IHEEM says “a record-breaking number of high quality papers” have been submitted for the conference, while the range of topics has been significantly broadened.

The South-West branch’s evening seminar programme will continue this month and in September with two informative presentations.

Readers are reminded that the closing date for nominations for the 2010 IHEEM awards is 30 June (HEJ – April 2010).

Carrow Road, home of Norwich City FC, will be the venue for an evening meeting of IHEEM’s East Anglia branch on 1 July, at which Chris Parker, IHEEM recruitment and membership manager, will highlight the potential for future activities for a branch that, by its own admission, has not been especially active in recent years.

The media has been paying much attention to recent political discussion concerning the implementation of cuts and cost-saving measures across the NHS. While little has been said specifically about precisely where these cuts will be, or how efficiency savings will be made, it is clear that the NHS faces a prolonged period of cuts, and the need for increased efficiency during what are sure to be difficult times for us all.

Testo has upgraded its thermal imaging camera range, with all models now offering improved thermal sensitivity (NETD) and a TwinPix image overlay feature when images are viewed on a PC.

Organisations developing and implementing “smart living” systems and products are to be brought together at a London event which co-organiser PhoneAbility, a charity that promotes “accessible information communication technology to support older and disabled people’s needs”, says will aim to “stimulate greater co-operation in the future”.

Energy managers should be aware of two new points of Environment Agency (EA) guidance on the new Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme if they are to derive the maximum benefit, an energy and climate change consultancy has warned.

A former head of estates and capital projects at Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, who fraudulently earned £245,246 over a five-year period by making false claims about his credentials, has been sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for a year, and to 200 hours of unpaid community work for fraud, following an NHS Counter Fraud Service investigation.

I would like to share how we, at The Dudley Group of Hospitals, manage the Legionella risk from our shower heads, particularly as regards regular de-scaling and disinfection.

NHS Hampshire and Solent Community Solutions Ltd (SCS) have announced the completion of the new Fareham Community Hospital, which will begin delivering services in early June.