RECENT NEWS

IHEEM is staging two waste management seminars in February to help members keep up-to-date with the latest legislation.

DDC Dolphin recently addressed IHEEM’s London Branch on theory and best practice relating to hospital sluice rooms.

Healthcare Estates 2008 is to be staged at the Harrogate International Centre on 14 and 15 October.

Space Air Solutions, distributor of the Daikin Siesta 7 Flashstreamer air purifier, is offering the system until 31 January, 2008 for £319 (including VAT and delivery), a £40 saving on the recommended price.

West Middlesex University Hospital is to be one of the first UK hospitals to introduce uniforms as standard for its doctors. From October 2007 all of West Middlesex’s junior doctors will be provided with blue tunic uniforms, which are made of infection-fighting fabric from Toray Textiles Europe.

The £2.3 million Brune Medical Centre development in Gosport has been officially handed over to Hampshire PCT by Solent Community Solutions (SCS).

This year’s JCT Povey Lecture, which takes place on Thursday, 15 November at the Institute of Physics in London, will be given by Bob White, chairman of Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment, non-executive chairman of Mace and chief executive of Building Futures Limited. The subject will be “innovation in the change agenda”.

According to the Healthcare Commission, the NHS needs to ensure that it consistently acts on and learns from complaints by patients. Publishing the first audit of how well the NHS handles complaints, the watchdog says it has found considerable variation in performance across the country.

Trevor Wills is joining the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust as director of estates and facilities, based in Reading.

Off-site construction specialist and Portakabin subsidiary Yorkon has won a £1.5 m healthcare building contract at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.

Working with developers Laing O’Rourke, and consultants AE Robb and WSP, P+HS Architects has announced the start of work on site to deliver an £8.9 million primary care centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear, as part of the NHS ProCure21 programme.

A survey of senior healthcare policy makers and advisors across the European Union shows widespread support for an increase in Early Health initiatives such as prevention, screening and early diagnosis, but not at the expense of current healthcare budgets allocated for treatment.

Doncaster Community Solutions (DCS) has announced financial close on four state-of-the-art LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) health centre developments in Moorends, Hatfield, Edlington and Askern.

Dr Graham Spittle, chairman of the Technology Strategy Board, has welcomed the publication of the Sainsbury Review of the Government’s Science and Innovation policies, saying that it provides “significant opportunities”.

An expansion of cancer screening, with a push to further reduce waiting times, may lead to a new role on the NHS estate for the UK fleet of mobile endoscopy units.

Much media attention has recently been focused on a Healthcare Commission report detailing significant failings in infection control at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Andy Wavell I Eng FIHEEM was given an opportunity to attend the IFHE Annual Council Meeting held recently in conjunction with the annual conference of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES) in Calgary, Canada.

IHEEM members may have noticed in the Institute News section of last month’s Health Estate Journal that the Institute’s secretariat has signed up to the CIBSE 100 days of Carbon Cleanup.

Michael Touhey MSc IEng MIHEEM MIET and EurIng Carl McKenzie BSc (Hons) CEng MCIBSE FIHEEM MASHRAE, were, at this year’s Healthcare Estates Conference in Harrogate, presented with the Northcroft Silver Medal for their Health Estate Journal article ‘Natural ventilation needs supplementing’ (HEJ, October 2006).

James Rees, IHEEM recruitment and membership manager, has left the Institute to move into the IT sector.