RECENT NEWS

Patients in the West Midlands are to benefit from closer-to-home healthcare through the largest fleet of mobile medical units ever assembled in the UK.

Paul Robbins, electro-medical services manager, technical support services, Papworth Hospital NHS Trust, was, at the Healthcare Estates Conference in Harrogate, presented with the Northcroft Silver Medal for his Health Estate Journal article "Managing risk in device engineering".

After more than four years as chief executive, Tim Broyd has left CIRIA. The Board has now appointed Bill Healy to serve as new CIRIA's chief executive.

IHEEM has welcomed its new chief executive, John Long MBE, who succeeds Bill Pym.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has published its latest guide to medical electrical equipment.

The new Evelina Children's Hospital has scooped another award, this time the British Construction Industry (BCI) Judges' Special Award for a building that the judges consider to be particularly inspirational.

The tenth anniversary of the National Biomedical and Clinical Engineering Conference was celebrated at the NEC in Birmingham with the theme "Convergence of Technologies - Past, Present and Future." The conference was sponsored by Philips Medical Systems, who mounted a display of historic equipment to mark the occasion. In addition, a new website (www.nationalbiomedconference.co.uk) was launched for the conference .

The new HTM 01 on disinfection and sterilisation is being published and is the first update of the guidance for over 10 years.

Canterbury Christ Church University is the first university in the UK to pilot MRSA protected uniforms.

Kier Northern has been awarded a £7.3 million design and build contract by Barnsley Primary Care Trust under the DoH Procure 21 Framework to provide a new adult acute mental health unit, which will be based at Kendray hospital.