RECENT NEWS

Further seminars in an IHEEM series on the New Medical Equipment Installation Guidance Notes (MEIGan) will be held on 19 January at The IOM3, London, and the Great Barr Hotel, Birmingham, on 9 March. Much “must have” information will be presented.

Members of the London Branch of IHEEM recently were given a presentation by Andrew Tweedie on cleanroom environments.

IHEEM’s 2005 Healthcare Estates Conference and Exhibition which took place in November at the Harrogate International Centre was the best ever in the history of the event, being heralded a success by delegates, speakers and exhibitors alike.

The University Hospital Birmingham has recently opened its doors to a new groundbreaking £4.5 million state-ofthe- art unit to aid the fight against cancer. Patients visiting the new West End development, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, will benefit from rapid, local access to the latest diagnostic technology and from two additional Radiotherapy linear accelerators.

Solray Radiant Panels from Comyn Ching & Co have been installed in a recently opened £40 million extension to the Royal Preston Hospital, part of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust. The panels are designed to heat the space with optimum efficiency, running on the new building’s low temperature hot water heating circuit.

Now available from the Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA) is its Guide to Good Practice: Internal Cleanliness and Ventilation Systems. Released at a time when the air quality expectations of building occupiers is higher than ever, this comprehensive guide to ventilation hygiene should be essential reading for anyone working with building ventilation, and therefore an invaluable aid to specifiers, consultants and legislators to ensure that ventilation systems are properly maintained.

In what is thought to be the largest workforce survey in the world, over 350,000 NHS staff including hospital porters and district nurses, surgeons and receptionists, at every level in every English NHS trust – are being asked for their views. As in the two previous years, the Healthcare Commission expects to see over 200,000 responses to this survey.

Philips Electronics has announced the opening of the world’s first Ambient Experience Paediatric Radiology Suite at the Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital in Illinois, USA. The suite is designed to create a soothing environment that enables children to relax while undergoing CT scans. The overall goal of the design is to make children more comfortable and thereby reduce the need for sedation and repeat examinations.

Two eminent professors opened the first meeting of the Antimicrobial Copper Interest Group, hosted by the Copper Development Association (CDA) in Birmingham recently. Professor Keevil, University of Southampton, presented the results of his International Copper Association sponsored research on inactivation of E.coli and MRSA by copper and brass surfaces in a matter of hours. He was joined by Professor Reed of Northumbria University who reported on his field work in India where the antimicrobial property of copper and brass show potential for decontaminating drinking water in rural communities.

Following on from his successful and innovative adoption of e-procurement during the creation of the first three waves of NHS LIFT projects, Brian Johns, chief executive of Partnerships for Health (PfH), has selected E-Box to provide its web-enabled document collaboration tool, PFINet to each of the eight Fourth Wave LIFTs.

Agfa-Gevaert has been selected by Accenture to provide digital radiology imaging management solutions to the North East and East clusters in England as part of Accenture’s work for the NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) program. The imaging services Agfa will provide include Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Computed Radiography (CR).

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has announced the opening of its brand new Evelina Children’s Hospital. The £60 million facility is London’s first new children’s hospital for more than 100 years. The 140-bed hospital, which is based on the St Thomas’ Hospital site, brings the majority of Guy’s and St Thomas’ children’s services together under one roof.

NBBJ, a leading international firm of over 700 architects and designers, has announced the appointment of Alistair Cory as a principal with the role of heading up the healthcare team in the London studio. The company is at the forefront of healthcare planning and design globally, and Alistair Cory will be leading the expansion of the London studio healthcare business into the UK and European markets.

Following its original negotiation work for a major new 16,600 m2 expansion of the current Cancer Research UK’s Clare Hall research campus in 2003, Phase 2 of the scheme has now been approved in detail by Hertsmere Borough Council.

Engineering, management and development consultancy, Mott MacDonald has secured two prestigious PFI contracts in the health sector. For Mersey Care NHS Trust the company will help drive the design, implementation and operation of the Trust’s new service model across all its facilities management services. For Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, Mott MacDonald has been appointed to provide project management services from the development of the outline business case through procurement to financial close for a new hospital.

Findings of a European Commission funded research project presented at the recent Health Protection Agency (HPA) conference show that levels of antibiotic use and infection control measures have a significant impact on MRSA levels in European hospitals.

Varian Medical Systems and the Plymouth Oncology Centre have agreed to renew the UK’s first radiotherapy PFI contract to provide the very latest radiation therapy equipment for patients in the south west of England.

P2W is a web-based permit to work a contractor management system developed by GEMsoft7 which functions as a management tool for planned and reactive maintenance work. P2W streamlines work procedures and ensures safe systems of work. GEMsoft7 is a new IHEEM company affiliate.

Why engineers should become registered and how they can go about it are fully explained on the newly revamped and expanded website (www.engc.org.uk) of the Engineering Council UK (ECUK), the body responsible for regulating the UK’s engineering profession. An important addition to the site is a special section on Engineering Technicians, whose skills are currently much in demand. It also now incorporates UK-SPEC, the regulations that are used to assess registration applications.

IHEEM members will have received a CPD Summary Tracking Sheet with their invoices at the beginning of the year (those who did not or who require another should visit the Institute’s website (www.iheem.org.uk) from which a copy can be downloaded. It is now time to submit the CPD Summary Tracking Sheet.