RECENT NEWS

Two intensive two-day courses covering law, procedure, report writing and oral evidence skills for professionals undertaking expert witness work are to be held by InPractice and the Inns of Court School of Law, City University, London.

Earthing, supply impedence, adjacent voltages, resilience and circuit relationships are some of the key electrical safety topics addressed by MEIGan, a medical equipment installation guidance document issued by MHRA.

The ETB recently launched its new statistical digest, Engineering UK.

The Futurebuild conference and exhibition being staged at Earls Court 2, London (22-23 February), will focus on innovations including those found in Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).

Applications are currently being invited for the next Facilities Management Development Centre Programme. The Pre-Centre Briefing and Preparation Day will be Wednesday, 29 March and the Residential Centre will be from 25 to 27 April.

Welsh Health Estates in association with the IHEEM Welsh Branch have announced further details of their joint conference to be staged in Cardiff on 30 and 31 March 2006.

7-11 May 2006: IFHE 19th Congress, Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa. Enquiries: Strategic Business Services, e-mail: registrar@sbs.co.za

The Engineering Council UK (ECUK) has published two new leaflets that succinctly describe how engineers can become professionally registered. One deals with registration as a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and the other with gaining the title of Incorporated Engineer (IEng).

IHEEM would like to congratulate Andrew Bishop and Paul Eaton for achieving registration with the Engineering Council UK as Incorporated Engineers.

The 1st European Conference on Healthcare Engineering was held in Baden-Baden, Germany, last September – the event was staged by the European Competence Center of Healthcare Engineering (ECCHE), an organisation formed by a group of associations most of which are members of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE).

Members of IHEEM are reminded that LAW Express is able to provide them with free and impartial telephone legal advice on a range of personal and business problems.

The next Advanced Course in Sterilization Technology and the Qualifying Course for Authorised Person (Sterilizers) Registration Year 2006 is to commence imminently.

Construction company Bluestone is continuing to build its reputation as a leading provider of healthcare buildings by securing a framework to deliver three state-of-the-art health and social care centres in Doncaster. The new facilities, worth around £9 million, will be developed as part of a national framework to improve community healthcare across the UK following the launch of the NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) initiative.

The Skanska Innisfree consortium has been named preferred bidder for the £265 million hospital redevelopment of Kings Mill and Mansfield hospitals for Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust and Mansfield District Primary Care Trust. Consortium architect, Swanke Hayden Connell, is the design team leader for the 95,000 m2 new building and refurbishment project.

Health Estate Journal was amongst the first to visit the world’s first mobile endoscopy unit, at its unveiling at the Healthcare Estates event in Harrogate in November 2005.

Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust has launched an exciting new recycling initiative across its administration and catering departments. The green overhaul includes the provision of recycling bins across the hospital to encourage staff to recycle all consumer waste including paper, cardboard, plastics, cans and glass.

The successful partnership between the NHS and the independent healthcare sector was clearly demonstrated to Minister for NHS Delivery, Lord Warner, when he officially opened the newly built NHS Treatment Centre at Barlborough near Chesterfield in October 2005.

A group of NHS trusts have achieved potential savings of nearly 30% on their 2005 bill for IT hardware via an on-line auction.

ReSound Health has praised the role of the local community trust in helping it to deliver its first LIFT project in Plymouth over four weeks early.

The JTL/NHS Estates national training programmes – launched in 2005 and featured in Health Estate Journal (June 05 pp40-41) – are off to a winning start with three streams and 40 young people already in place.