RECENT NEWS

Building Services Now (BSN) has worked closely and collaboratively with Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust to provide alterations and improvements to the existing hospital facilities at Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich.

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) has launched a new procurement framework to help public sector organisations access technology that supports social distancing in the workplace.

Following the announcement that the ‘live’ 2020 Healthcare Estates event has been deferred until 2021, IHEEM and Step Exhibitions are running a series of digital events under the banner of ‘Stay Connected, Keep Informed, Get Ahead'.

Registration is now open for the first in a new series of webinars – which takes place on 20 July – to be presented by leading product and technology suppliers to the sector in association with Health Estate Journal over coming months.

A Greater Manchester-based manufacturer and supplier of laboratory and medical equipment says it has ‘risen to an unprecedented challenge to assist in the frontline fight against COVID-19’, while simultaneously forging ahead with ambitious growth.

Claire Ryan, an Estates officer at mental health / disability services provider, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, has become the first female winner of a regional award which recognises her commitment to the study of construction.

Modular construction specialist, Darwin Group, has completed the first of three new ward buildings for NHS Trusts across Britain – at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, with the other two set to be finished this month.

Kier has been appointed by the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust to deliver a new £97.1 m Ambulatory Care and Diagnostics Centre (ACAD), procured through the P22 framework, at Heartlands Hospital in Bordesley Green East.

Following the installation of a Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution, comprising an Ultra Fast Scanner and Image Management System, pathologists working at the University Hospital Crosshouse in Kilmarnock are to have access to remote diagnostics.

The maritime city of Liverpool has a striking new form on the city skyline, that of the curving prow of Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool (CCC-L), already nicknamed ‘The Liner’.

Mott MacDonald has been appointed sustainability, energy, and carbon reduction advisor by the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) to support the preparation of design briefs for its Hospitals of the Future and Pathology Project.

A new carbon-based material able to ‘capture and destroy’ coronavirus has been developed.

Aggreko says it has ‘demonstrated its commitment to lowering overall emissions’ by engaging global engineering and environmental consultancy, Ricardo, to test the performance of its generators ‘running on more sustainable alternative fuels’.

Gloucestershire-based training centre for the healthcare engineering and healthcare estate management sector, Eastwood Park, will recommence the delivery of specialist healthcare engineering, decontamination, and estates and FM training from 29 June.

RFiD Discovery, part of Paragon ID, a provider of identification solutions, has partnered with geolocation specialist, Apitrak, to develop a ‘multi-technology’ cloud-hosted IoT platform ‘for the tracking of assets, inventory, and people’.

Jayne Hall has taken up the reins as the new President of the Chartered Association for Building Engineers (CABE), donning the Presidential chain for the first time in late May.

Vaillant has introduced three new online CPD modules for built environment, professionals – including architects, M&E consultants, specifiers, and energy managers.

‘Decarbonisation of Heat & Low Carbon Technologies’, ‘Heating’s Dirty Little Secret’, and ‘Hydrogen: the role of green gas in the decarbonisation of heat’, have been designed to give participants an insight into system design best practice for modern heating technologies, and the role of low-carbon technologies in decarbonising heat in the future.

Independent healthcare waste management company, Anenta, has been appointed by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) to oversee and manage the delivery of clinical waste logistics and disposal services to over 700 pharmacies across Hampshire, The Isle of Wight, and the Thames Valley.

The appointment takes the number of pharmacies provided with Anenta’s waste management services in the South East region to over 1,500. Having – it says – saved the authority over £1.7m over the past two years through the implementation of its dedicated, online contract management platform ‘Vector’, Anenta will deploy its analytics and AI technology to identify waste service efficiencies and savings that can be made on behalf of the 700 recently onboarded pharmacies.

As a temporary power and temperature supplier to around 100 critical COVID-19 projects UK-wide, Aggreko says it has recently adapted its business to enable 50 per cent of its staff to deliver equipment ‘to remarkably tight deadlines’ on the ‘frontline’.

Among the facilities the business is supplying are a number of temporary hospitals and mortuaries. Measures it has implemented ‘to help during such unprecedented times’ include offering 1,300 of its generators free of charge to COVID-19 testing sites, prioritising its fleet for critical sectors, and ‘putting its people first’. It said: “The dedication and camaraderie displayed by the engineers is ensuring we can to go above and beyond at this challenging time.”

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has recently developed an innovative way of supplying oxygen at Charing Cross Hospital in London in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.