RECENT NEWS

This year, a series of successful seminars have been held by IHEEM on a range of subjects including medical gases and the control of legionella, and the Institute hopes to replicate this success in 2006.

Among new IHEEM members recently welcomed is Ramu Naidu Sathiyam, project manager at the Asia Institute of Medical Science and Technology project in Malaysia. The project embraces a medical faculty, engineering, IT, library, student centre, and administration facility, and his company has been involved in M&E services.

Nearly 20 countries attended the 38th Council meeting of the IFHE held in Antwerp in the summer, and IHEEM was well represented by Ronnie Browne and Laurie Hadley, both of whom are past presidents. Jim Cook also attended – he is IFHE treasurer and chairman of IHEEM's International Affairs Committee.

IHEEM would like to congratulate David LC Browning and Richard A Bateson for achieving registration as Chartered Engineers.

IHEEM can reflect that much has been achieved this year, writes Tammy Simmons, the Institute’s recruitment manager. Not only have membership numbers increased, as has been reported in HEJ, but also the membership retention rate is at an all time high.

IHEEM’s Membership Committee has extensive duties and responsibilities. The committee: · Reviews membership assessment criteria as necessary and advise the Institute’s Council on all matters regarding membership of IHEEM. · Receives and review all new applications and upgrades for membership. · Promotes Engineering Council registration to members. · Provides guidance to members on all aspects of membership and registration with the Engineering Council UK, as well as encouraging upgrades and transfers to appropriate grades of membership. · Develops and maintain professional review panels within each branch area and provide training for panel members. · Gives advice to members on Professional Development and undertake monitoring on a sample basis.

The latest status report on the working programme of CEN TC 204 (concerning the sterilisation of medical devices) can be found by IHEEM members in their section on the Institute’s website.

The Welsh Branch of IHEEM in association with Welsh Health Estates has announced advance details of a twoday conference and accompanying exhibition to be held at the Hilton Hotel, Cardiff, on 30 and 31 March 2006.

IHEEM’s next series of seminars will be on the New Medical Equipment Installation Guidance Notes (MEIGan). The MHRA (the former Medical Devices Agency) has updated its guidance for the pre-installation of imaging equipment and it includes related issues concerning associated circuits in the patient area. The MEIGan document, now launched, includes preinstallation electrical guidance for imaging equipment and associated lighting and power circuits.

The Process Steam Guide has been produced by Gary Sowerby Eur.Ing CEng MEI as a result of 38 years of process steam plant experience.

Xerox Global Services (XGS) has issued a warning to the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors about the lack of document and knowledge sharing tools that could "send both sectors into meltdown".

An entertainment and communication terminal developed by Trident will allow hospital patients to keep in touch with friends and family, watch television or film channels and browse the web from their beds. The unit is designed for deployment under the NHS patient power project, whose aim is to provide a personal bedside TV and telephone service to every major hospital in the UK. Trident has partnered with Patient Power licence holder Premier Telesolutions to deliver a custom solution specifically for hospitals.

Sourcing high quality heavy duty WC units has been simplified by stainless steel sanitaryware manufacturer W&G Sissons, with the launch of a product brochure featuring the company’s new Guardian and Centinel ranges.

LAW Express has been providing telephone legal advice to members of IHEEM since September 2002. When members have had a problem, or something has caused stress or anxiety, the organisation has been at hand.

Catering staff at Hull Royal Infirmary have revamped the menus for the children’s wards in an effort to tackle the city’s increasing child obesity problem and encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables. Staff believe they are perfectly placed to plug the healthy eating message while youngsters are in hospital, and are essentially a captive audience.

Redstone Communications has been awarded Systems Silver approval by the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) in recognition of its commitment to providing effective protection to health organisations against threats to voice, data, internet and building security.

The latest Help-Point telephones from Gai-Tronics are hands-free autodialler units, with vandal resistant DDA friendly features. These telephones are designed for general public use, including users with impaired sight, hearing, speech or physical disabilities, providing a centralised access point for help or information. They can be located in general public areas and service provider premises such as hospitals. They are also ideally suited as a telephone entry panel for locked, gated or otherwise inaccessible premises, so helping to ensure compliance with the latest DDA legislation. This can include public buildings.

The 2005 Healthcare Estates Conference, organised by IHEEM, will develop the themes covered in the 2004 conference and will look ahead to what the future holds. Papers on proposed conference themes are now invited from all professionals working in the field of healthcare engineering, design and construction, and estates and facilities management.

When Longreach House Psychiatric Hospital contacted materials handling specialist MasterMover recently, the hospital was impressed to find a pedestrian operated tug unit that could solve two issues it had with roll cage movement.

Members of IHEEM’s London Branch were given recently a “double tour” of the Royal Albert Hall, London.