RECENT NEWS

In unveiling a new report that the member organisation says ‘sets out scale of the task required to rebuild and equip the NHS to make it fit for the 21st century’, the deputy CEO of NHS Providers argues that ‘it’s time for the biggest building programme in the NHS since the Beatles’.

UK infection control company, GV Health, has delivered 9.5 tonnes of infection control equipment and healthcare disinfectants for use by medical staff in Chinese hospitals.

Schneider Electric, the specialist in ‘digital transformation’ in energy management and automation, has announced that it is to expand its UK manufacturing facilities in Scarborough and Leeds ‘driven by rising demand in renewable and green technologies’.

London South Bank University (LSBU) and the Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) have launched a new joint research and innovation centre.

Research published on 28 November by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAA) in a new report,'Closing the engineering gender pay gap', indicates that the gender pay gap is smaller in the engineering profession than the UK employee average.

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’.

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.