RECENT NEWS

Experienced healthcare estates engineers are being sought by the NHS Supply Chain in an advisory capacity as part of its plans to deliver a new national agreement for operating lights and ceiling service units during this year.

A vacancy has arisen within the IHEEM Journal Committee, which is responsible for managing all aspects of Health Estate Journal and ensuring that the magazine’s technical and professional quality are maintained.

IHEEM’s London branch recently hosted a lecture on “ceiling-mounted radiant heating in the healthcare sector”. Branch chairman John Crawford said: “We were delighted with the presentation from HCP, which explained both how radiant heating panels work, and how they can be easily installed.

The future of PFI, LIFT and Pro21+, “identifying the shape of capital projects in the immediate future”, evaluating the impact on project costs of achieving BREEAM excellence, saving money via energy efficiencies,

The key issues requiring consideration by those involved in the specification and design of nurse call and bedhead services systems, in line with the recently published Department of Health HTM 08/03 Healthcare Technical Memorandum guidance document, “Bedhead Services”, will be examined by Static Systems Group at an IHEEM South-West branch seminar being held at the Gleeds offices in Parkway North, Bristol on 24 February.

Organisations and individuals keen to present a paper at this year’s Healthcare Estates conference in Manchester in October around the 2010 theme “Cleaner, Leaner, Safer and Greener Environments for Quality Patient Care”

The organisers of this year’s Healthcare Estates event in Manchester say that, based on bookings to date, the venue change appears to be being well received, with the event “on course to be the largest and best-attended ever”.

Five national awards are to be presented by IHEEM in 2010. To be given to recipients during the annual Healthcare Estates conference and exhibition, taking place this year at Manchester Central from 5-6 October, the awards are:

The organisers of next month’s IHEEM-supported “The Big Bang” event, the goal of which is to stimulate young people’s interest in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers, have repeated their call for volunteers to help ensure that the fair, which is expected to attract thousands of youngsters from across the UK, runs smoothly.

Plans for a new £45 million neuroscience research facility for King’s College London (KCL)’s Denmark Hill campus in south-east London, designed by Devereux Architects and Allies and Morrison Architects (model pictured), have received planning approval.

When the owners of an award-winning nursing home decided to upgrade the 37-bed property they found that Marshall-Tufflex’s Odyssey Bio Trunking Solutions provided the perfect answer for meeting the project’s cable management requirements and delivering a welcome infection control element.

Portakabin’s rapid-response team has installed an interim building for two Cockermouth GP surgeries, which serve 15,000 patients, after their buildings were destroyed in the recent Cumbria floods.

Environment Secretary Dan Norris (pictured) has called on the UK construction industry to “embrace the financial and environmental opportunities waste reduction can offer”.

Durham University and “e-learning company” Marshall ACM have produced a 45-minute online course covering records management/ information security/data protection and Freedom of Information, which is available to any organisation “to help ensure responsible business continuity”.

Authorised NHS staff can now call on anyone causing trouble or nuisance to leave NHS premises and, should they refuse, remove them, following the introduction of new powers under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (CJIA) 2008.

Vanguard Healthcare, the supplier of mobile surgical services, has announced plans to offer its mobile healthcare solutions across Europe.

Doncaster Community Solutions has received full planning permission to build two new healthcare centres, jointly costing over £14 million, in the Dearne Valley and Doncaster town centre.

Blender, re-packer and distributor of speciality gases and chemicals A-Gas says its latest research suggests that, although many health estate managers appear well prepared for the phase out of HCFCs and other ODP (ozone depletion potential) refrigerants, “there is still much confusion”.

The UK’s Engineering and Technology Board (ETB) has taken on a new name, becoming Engineering UK.

Mott MacDonald has been appointed to work with the UK’s largest hospital NHS Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, to improve the region’s healthcare facilities as part of the Capital Works Building and Engineering Framework.