RECENT NEWS

Agfa’s Impax PACS system is now up and running within the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Trust’s new £225 million building on London’s Euston Road. After a speedy installation, Impax 4.5 has received an enthusiastic welcome from clinicians and radiologists alike.

Architect-led building design firm, Building Design Partnership (BDP) has made a number of new appointments as part of its strategy to re-enter the healthcare sector.

Preventive health organisation Preventicum has pioneered a new approach to preventive medicine, based on an integrated strategy for early diagnosis, by combining individualised care with the most advanced examination methods available. The company recently extended its organisation into the UK with the launch of its first clinic in West London, and the centrepiece of its service is a Philips’ Achieva 1.5T MRI scanner for fast scanning, expanded applications and enhanced workflow.

iSOFT, supplier of application systems for healthcare organisations and economies around the world, has announced the go-live of its i.Pharmacy solution at Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, representing the first implementation in the UK. The rollout is a strategic move in the direction of Lorenzo, iSOFT’s core product offering, and introduces the software developer’s internationally proven pharmacy application to the UK.

Southend Hospital NHS Trust, one of the UK’s major hospital trusts with 3,900 staff and an annual income of over £160 million, has invested £28,000 in an important move to ensure that its financial accounting systems relating to capital expenditure fully comply with the requirements of the Capital Accounting Manual and provide valuable data for the new NHS Payment by Results system.

A nationwide research programme has revealed a widespread ambulance infection threat to staff and patients. The research trials involved emergency vehicles from half of the Ambulance Trusts in the UK, who worked in collaboration with ambulance equipment supplier Ferno UK and industrial and healthcare specialist Steris.

BUPA Hospitals has appointed Jean- Jacques De Gorter, as its new director of clinical services.

The Telecare Policy Collaborative and the Department of Health are providing practical advice and guidance for local authorities on how to commission telecare services using the Preventative Technologies Grant. This announcement will signal the implementation of the £80 million grant that will be invested over a period of two years from April 2006.

BT has awarded a nine-year contract to enhance data security and privacy for the new NHS Care Records Service to Sapior. The pseudonymisation solution developed by Sapior will be used to deidentify sensitive patient information for use in secondary medical purposes rather than direct patient care.

The Department of Health and the Health Protection Agency have published the results of the first ever mandatory surveillance schemes for Clostridium difficile associated diarrhoea and glycopeptide resistant enterococci (GRE) bacteraemias. Chief nursing officer Christine Beasley said: “We added Clostridium difficile and glycopeptide resistant enterococci to the mandatory surveillance system to help the NHS establish the scale of the problem, and provide information to help improve infection control.

Speech recognition specialist Telephonetics has been included on the national framework agreement as a speech technology supplier to the NHS, by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA).

Healthcare hotel services company Medirest has promoted two long-serving members of its domestic and cleaning staff to management roles. Penny Scaife has been appointed as domestic contract manager for Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust, and Eleanor Rush has been made training manager for over 700 Medirest staff at five hospitals in the East Kent Trust.

Twice-Olympic gold rowing medallist, James Cracknell, recently opened the UK’s first ever dedicated cardiac CT service and experienced a “virtual reality tour” of the heart via a new sophisticated Siemens cardiac CT scanner at the UK’s leading cardiothoracic centre, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust (RB&H). This unique cardiac scanning service, based at Royal Brompton Hospital, will help fight the battle against coronary heart disease.

Off-site construction specialist Yorkon has completed the first Independent Sector Treatment Centre to be built offsite. The £12 million Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre was manufactured and fitted out by the company in less than 10 months and is believed to be the most complex modular building project ever undertaken in the UK. The client’s designer and project manager was Atkins.

Following many years of R&D, supported by intensive clinical trials, Toray Textiles is making medical-silver technology available to healthcare professionals across the UK through its range of “XStatic” silver-containing woven fabrics.

The 2005 Annual Seminar of the Healthcare Facilities Consortium (HFC), held at Chester College at the start of September, has been reported by delegates as having been “one of the best yet”. The specialist three day FM information seminar attracted around 130 delegates in all.

The intricacies of the provision and control of air conditioning in hospitals have been debated for decades, and the subject is examined in a special “Then and now” Health Estate Journal editorial spotlight published in this issue.

The two recent articles, in the August and September editions of Health Estate Journal, on the subject of thermometry raise a number of interesting points and issues worthy of further debate, writes Mike Arrowsmith, HEJ technical editor.

Washington Accord: The number of countries signed up to this mutual recognition agreement increased in the summer when JABEE (Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education) became a full signatory.

IHEEM is drawing further attention to its firm intention to improve communication with members.