RECENT NEWS

“Shaping the Future” will be the theme of a two-day conference and exhibition being staged by the Institute’s Northern Ireland Branch later this month at the Marine Court Hotel in Bangor.

The Institute’s Education Committee is currently considering the content for the IHEEM technical seminars to be run during 2011 and, explains events/education manager Jeff Pickering, would greatly welcome ideas for potential subject matter from members.

IHEEM has released fuller details of the agenda for three technical seminars being staged this year on “The role of practical risk management in estates”, with the first two to be held in London (18 May, at the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining) and Leeds (26 May, at the Thackray Museum) later this month.

March’s “Big Bang” Science fair, a two-day event held in Manchester aimed at encouraging young people to consider a career in the engineering and science sector, saw IHEEM head office personnel and North-West branch members field a wide range of questions from young visitors on the role and importance of healthcare engineering and estates management in a modern-day health service.

The 317 specialist shower panels supplied by Horne Engineering, designers, developers, and manufacturers, of thermostatic control products since 1909, are to be installed in bathroom pods by integrated panel system manufacturer WH Foster.

PegaSys is a simple, flexible access control system which allows key-based locks to be quickly and cost-effectively upgraded to electronic access control using the latest smart card technology.

The good looks and guaranteed lifetime antimicrobial performance of Marshall-Tufflex’s award-winning Odyssey Bio Trunking Solution made it the perfect choice for a refurbishment project within Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

People generally have a strong preference for natural daylight over electric lighting in a room, but in healthcare buildings, in particular, adequate indoor lighting is essential for staff and patients to move about in safety and perform their day-to-day tasks, and in creating a pleasing ambience.

Andrews Water Heaters has supplied two SOLARflo water heating systems, along with Queen’s Award-winning MAXXflo condensing water heaters, for Wolverhampton’s new Beacon Centre for the Blind.

The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) wants all NHS organisations to sign up to the Good Corporate Citizenship model, an “online sustainable toolkit” developed with the NHS Sustainable Development Unit.

The NHS Security Management Service (SMS) has welcomed “the positive revisions” to the sixth edition of the Code for Crown Prosecutors, which it says “underscore the public interest in prosecuting all those who attack health workers”.

Royal BAM Group companies BAM Construct and BAM Nuttall have appointed new chief executives to oversee BAM activities and grow the BAM “brand” in the UK.

Usk-based Audere Medical Services says NHS and private dentists have been contacting it in numbers recently to advise and assist them in implementing the necessary processes and procedures to comply with the Essential Quality Requirements and Best Practice criteria of the recently introduced Department of Health Health Technical Memorandum 01-05.

After successfully being awarded the £4 million design and build contract to construct a new modular operating theatre complex for University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, MTX (see also page 9) is now “well under way with the groundworks”, and making final preparations before lifting the 35 prefabricated building modules into position.

Construction of a “world-class” cystic fibrosis (CF) unit for young patients has recently commenced at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital.

Taylor Young, as architects and town planners, with BAM Construction, on behalf of NHS North Lincolnshire, have been granted planning permission for a new health and social care centre in Scunthorpe town centre.

Specialist artwork and design consultancy Artinsite has created “a unique environment” for the waiting and scanning areas of the children’s nuclear imaging department at London’s St Thomas’ Hospital.

VINCI Park is to invest £9 million in designing, building, and managing, a new car park for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

With the UK engineering sector ever keen to encourage more young entrants, last month (13-14 March) saw a highly successful science fair, “The Big Bang”, whose goal was to stimulate youngsters’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers, take place in Manchester (HEJ – February 2010), with IHEEM’s support and participation.

Concerned that not only do engineering professionals often not get the recognition they deserve, but equally that the profession’s importance to society has been under-valued and under-acknowledged, especially given the past decade’s increasing focus on the service sector,