RECENT NEWS
New ‘Expert Panel’ and ‘grassroots campaign’ to help NHS reach ‘net zero’
NHS CEO, Sir Simon Stevens (pictured), has announced that the NHS and its staff will ‘step up action to tackle the climate health emergency’ via three key measures – the first a new ‘expert panel’ to “chart a practical route map this year to enable the NHS to get to ‘net zero’”, the second a proposed new NHS Standard Contract calling on hospitals to reduce carbon from buildings and estates, switch to ‘less polluting anaesthetic gases and better asthma inhalers’, and encourage more active travel for staff, and the third a ‘grassroots campaign’ to encourage staff and hospitals ‘to cut their impact on people’s health and the environment’.- News
‘Cause for optimism’ on youngsters' perceptions about an engineering career
An annual survey by EngineeringUK gives ‘cause for optimism’ about young people’s perceptions of an engineering career, with the proportion of 16 to 19-year-olds who would consider such a career up by 8 per cent from 37 per cent in 2016 to 45 per cent in 2019.- News
'Millions' being spent on ‘fake’ apprenticeship schemes
A new report published by skills and education ‘think tank’, EDSK, has found that ‘millions of pounds’ of the government’s Apprenticeship Levy are being spent on so-called ‘fake apprenticeship schemes’, which, in reality, are ‘relabelled degrees or training courses for existing staff’.- News
Delays and increased costs at former Carillion projects
A National Audit Office (NAO) report published on 17 January reveals that the two PFI hospitals Carillion was building at the time of its collapse – the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, and the Midland Metropolitan Hospital – are currently due for completion over five years, and nearly four years late, respectively.- News
New courses included in training calendar
Eastwood Park’s new training calendar for April 2020-March 2021 has been published, with details of its specialist engineering and estates and facilities management courses.- News
A clear MEP vision for eye care centre
NG Bailey has secured a £2.9 m project to deliver mechanical, electrical, and plumbing installations (MEP) for a new eye care centre at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank in Scotland. The independent engineering and services provider has been appointed by the principal contractor, Kier Regional Building – Scotland, to support the development of the centre.- News
Sponsored: Micad Acquires ZetaSafe
We are delighted to announce that Micad has completed the acquisition of ZetaSafe, a leading compliance management software provider whose products are used extensively across the UK in Healthcare and globally for a range of large organisations.- News
Award for sanitary assembly specialist
Total Laminate Systems, the sanitary assembly and IPS unit manufacturer, received the Best Interior Building Product award at November’s Building Better Healthcare Awards 2019 at The Brewery in the City of London- News
Modular theatre and ward suite boosts capacity
Patients have started using a new theatre and ward complex at Birmingham’s Royal Orthopaedic Hospital housed in what its constructor, ModuleCo Healthcare (MCH), dubs ‘a state-of-the-art, two-storey modular building’.- News
Vanguard’s new mobile CSSD on show
Vanguard Healthcare Solutions says over 350 visitors looked around its new mobile Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD) unit at October’s Healthcare Estates 2019 event.- News
McAvoy strengthens management team
Offsite construction specialist, The McAvoy Group, has expanded its Board with the appointment of Martin O’Neill as Contracts director, further strengthening its management team.- News
Roundtable idea to ‘supercharge’ construction’s digital future
UK building professionals should ‘take a leaf out of motor racing’s book’ to advance their use of digital technology, an industry roundtable has concluded.- News
Healthcare 21 Group acquires medical imaging specialist
Anglo-Irish company, Healthcare 21 Group, one of Northern Europe’s largest privately-owned healthcare companies, has completed the acquisition of Gloucestershire-based Xograph Healthcare.- News
Major medical gas upgrade at ‘flagship’ BMI hospital
BMI’s ‘flagship’ Alexandra Hospital in Manchester, the UK’s largest private hospital outside London, has recently undergone a major refurbishment, which included the upgrading of the hospital’s medical gas pipeline system by BeaconMedaes.- News
Imtech acquires public sector EPC specialist
Imtech, a technical services engineering business jointly owned by EDF Energy and Dalkia, has announced its acquisition of Breathe, a provider of Energy Performance Contracts with public sector experience, including in ‘providing tailored engineering solutions’ to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, renew infrastructure, reduce operating costs, and improve built environments, in health, education and central government.- News
Handling Scotland’s clinical waste
Tradebe, ‘an international leader’ in waste reclamation and recycling solutions that manages over two million tonnes of waste annually, has officially opened a new clinical waste treatment site at Bellshill, near Glasgow.- News
Best practice guide to valve specification published
A new guide from steam expert, Spirax Sarco, is designed to emphasise to engineers and purchasing teams the importance of control valve specification and design.- News
EMS deploys ‘UK’s largest mobile decontamination unit’
The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has ‘partnered’ with mobile medical unit provider, EMS Healthcare, and operating theatre and surgical component, process, and technology specialist, Cantel (UK), to launch what Cantel says is the UK’s largest mobile decontamination unit.- News
Seven-year soft FM contract won
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust has awarded ISS Facility Services Healthcare the contract to deliver non-clinical soft FM services across the Trust, after an extensive tender process. The seven-year contract will deliver services to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University Hospital Lewisham, and the associated community sites. This represents a contract retention for ISS at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and will see some 400 staff transfer to ISS from University Lewisham Hospital.- News
Wates appoints social enterprise in emissions reduction quest
Construction, property services, and development company, Wates Group, claims to be the first in the sector to have supported the creation of, and appointed, an independent social enterprise – Planet First Energy (PFE) – to help it reduce CO2 emissions and meet long-term sustainability goals.- News
