RECENT NEWS

When pressure on operating theatres at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital saw the hospital’s design team face the challenge of finding space for a new theatre, bespoke modular healthcare facility contractor MTX Contracts devised a solution.

A pioneering nappy recycling facility to initially serve hospitals and other institutions – reportedly a UK first – is being planned for early next year. Plans for the Tylseley, Birmingham facility have been submitted to Birmingham City Council by Knowaste, a developer of recycling technologies for nappies and other absorbent hygiene products.

A fire at the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust’s Northwick Park Hospital on 11 February, believed to have started in a basement electrical plant room, saw around 170 patients evacuated. The evacuees were placed elsewhere in the hospital, at local primary care facilities, and at the Northwick Park’s sister hospital, Central Middlesex, in Park Royal.

Six cancer patients, whose sperm was lost when the nitrogen in the freezer tanks it was being stored in at Bristol’s Southmead Hospital fell below required levels, have won their claim for damages against the North Bristol NHS Trust.

The effective management of healthcareassociated infections, with a number of presentations promising to unveil new approaches to combating the spread of bacteria such as Clostridium difficile and MRSA, will be the key theme of the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals’ 34th Annual Conference and Exhibition this summer.

Health-related brands looking to communicate with patients, staff and visitors can now exploit what is reportedly the UK’s first ever hospital poster advertising platform. New media owner Lighthouse Advertising has acquired exclusive rights to promote poster campaigns on UK NHS premises.

Senior estates and facilities personnel, including the EFM director at England’s largest NHS Trust, the Welsh Assembly Government’s director of strategy, a top microbiologist, and the chief executive of the Health Estates Agency for Northern Ireland, will be among the key speakers at the 2009 annual conference of IHEEM’s Welsh branch, being held next month in the Welsh capital.

The unstinting efforts of the estates team at Kent’s Medway Maritime Hospital to reduce the hospital’s carbon footprint have been recognised by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) for the second year running, with the team scooping the award for the “Low Carbon Operator/Manager of the Year” at CIBSE’s 2009 Low Carbon Performance Awards in London.

Eleven operating theatres at a leading South West hospital have been fitted out with a new and unique cable containment system developed to lead the way in the fight against harmful and potentially deadly bugs, providing hospital managers with an additional weapon in their battle against infection.

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), one of UK’s largest and most complex NHS Trusts, has signed a seven-year managed service contract with Azzurri Communications for its entire estate of fixed-line and mobile communications across its six hospital sites.

Salisbury District Hospital has won the 2008 Health Business Hospital Security Award for its Salto Systems access control installation.

Southend University Hospital has worked with interior surfaces specialist Altro to create 68 hand gel stations at the hospital, as a highly visible reminder to staff, patients and visitors to “always clean your hands”.

Warrington Hospital’s new £6.25 million intensive care unit has opened to its first patients.

Children at the Leicester Children’s Hospital, at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, are benefiting from a new 528 m2 rooftop play area supplied by Newark-based installer of impact-absorbing surfacing for playgrounds Playtop.

Drivers Jonas LLP have been appointed by Barts and the London NHS Trust to advise on property issues in respect of its retained estate.

WSP secures multi-disciplinary hospital project WSP UK Ltd has secured an appointment for a new £64 million Surgical Centre which will be constructed at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

NHS CEO David Nicholson learned more about Vernacare’s Green Ribbon hospital cleanliness project, via which patients are visibly reassured that their bed area has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected via a green ribbon around the bed, during a recent visit to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

A showcase mental health unit in Barnsley procured through the ProCure21 framework has been described as “one of the best” by the head of the NHS.

A three-month consultation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on its new strategy “The Health and Safety System of Great Britain\Be Part of the Solution”, ends on 2 March, giving those with a key safety remit within healthcare just under a month to make their views known.

With investment in the Irish health sector continuing on both sides of the border, April’s Step Exhibitionsorganised Healthcare Ireland 2009 conference and exhibition is taking place from 1-2 April at the RDS, Dublin, against a fast-changing Irish healthcare backdrop.