RECENT NEWS

In a £15 m contract – the Group’s largest healthcare project to date – offsite construction specialist, The McAvoy Group, has craned the final modules into position for a new wing at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington.

Fairfield Independent Hospital in St Helens, Merseyside, is one of the very few remaining independent charitable hospitals in the country, and has provided a clean, safe and welcoming environment for healthcare and treatment for over 45 years.

Construction work on the new Royal Papworth Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus is now complete.

The Skanska team has delivered the new hospital, designed by lead architects, HOK, which will include five operating theatres, five catheter laboratories (for non-surgical procedures) and two hybrid theatres. The 310-bedded hospital will incorporate a 46-bed critical care unit, and most patients will have single, en-suite rooms.

Only half of GP practice buildings in England are fit for purpose, with surgeries too small to meet the demands of growing populations, a major survey on practice premises from the British Medical Association (BMA) has found.

In the light of the survey’s findings, the BMA has urged urging the Government to use next month’s spending review to invest in GP premises. It says health bosses must also ‘remove bureaucratic barriers that can often prevent practices carrying out the improvements that they need’.

Construction contractor, Stepnell, and specialist care sector developer, Brackley Investments, have celebrated the start of construction on a new NHS medical centre to replace Langwith Medical Centre, a primary care base in Derbyshire run by Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust.

Brackley has appointed Nottingham-based Stepnell to the £1.1 million construction contract to deliver the facility, which will be located within sight of the current ‘outdated’ practice premises, on Langwith’s Main Street.

The Trustee Board of the Royal Academy of Engineering has nominated Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng, FRSE, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde, as its Presidential candidate for election by Fellows at the September 2019 AGM.

The Gastroenterology Department at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) has moved some of its services to the Quadram Institute (pictured), a multi-million pound facility on Norwich Research Park, which will now be home to a range of endoscopy and bowel cancer screening services.

A Foundation Trust is addressing winter pressures with the addition of a mobile theatre unit, which it says will help it increase its operational capacity by an estimated 120 procedures a month.

The Teal Task Force service – which supports medical environments with ‘high quality’ hot water hand washing sinks, delivering units to site to meet demand as a result of unplanned or planned water supply interruptions – says that while the winter season has always generated high demand for the hire service, it has seen ‘a significant increase’ over the last three months

Global water treatment and magnetic filtration manufacturer, Adey, has launched a new Commercial Division, ‘dedicated to providing a complete package of water management solutions and services for commercial heating and cooling systems’.

This year Pland Stainless will mark 100 years in British manufacturing.

Arguing that plant managers ‘would benefit from developing a basic understanding of the properties of steam’, Spirax Sarco says that a new guide, The Fundamentals of Steam Quick Start Guide, ‘identifies several core elements to help develop knowledge within key areas’.

HAC Medical Gas Training and Services has developed a new e-learning package, adherent to HTM 02-01 (and SHTM 02-01) standards, ‘to make medical gas training more accessible and time-efficient for nursing and clinical personnel’.

BSI, the business standards company, has released British standard BS 8580-1:2019: Water quality. Risk assessments for Legionella control. Code of practice, ‘a significant revision to the 2010 British Standard providing further guidelines for assessing water quality and the risk of Legionnaires’ disease’.

BSI explained: “This standard gives recommendations and guidance on the assessment of the risk of Legionellosis presented by artificial water systems. Legionellosis is a collective term for diseases caused by bacteria of the genus Legionella, an opportunist pathogen which normally inhabits warm, moist or aquatic environments.”

Medical Air Technology (MAT) recently completed work on Theatres 3 and 4 in the Riverside Treatment Centre at University Hospital Lewisham, upgrading them from conventional to ultraclean as part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) lifecycle and upgrade programme.

AFL Architects has been appointed to support Rutherford Diagnostics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Proton Partners, as it ‘plans to embark on an ambitious programme of healthcare development across the UK’.

Awarded the programme of works contract in 2018 following a competitive tender, the practice will work with Rutherford Estates as delivery partner across the schemes. The first going into construction is the five-storey Rutherford Diagnostics HQ building in Liverpool, as part of the £1bn Paddington Village masterplan. The project broke ground in early January, with the building to be located directly adjacent to the Rutherford Cancer Centre, which is currently in its later stages of construction.

BDP has made ‘a strategic investment’ in Toronto-based Quadrangle, ‘one of Canada’s most respected architecture and interior design practices’.

The practices say the partnership will create a platform for continued international growth in key markets and sectors across Canada and North America.

Health and care property company, Prime, has completed a deal to purchase full shares in joint venture company, Interserve Prime.

The company will be known as Prime Partnering Solutions. Prime says the acquisition ‘will have no impact on ongoing projects, other than to offer increased efficiency and the convenience of a single point of contact to clients and suppliers’. It added: “Interserve remains a key supply chain partner to Prime, and the two companies continue to enjoy a good working relationship.”

Healthcare professionals from across Scotland are being invited to a ‘specialist event’ on 22 February in Glasgow hosted by medical technology organisation, Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, which will explore the Scottish Waiting Times Improvement Plan, and look at how flexible infrastructure strategies can help NHS Boards across the country meet waiting times for diagnostic and surgical procedures.

Assa Abloy UK, a division of Assa Abloy Group, which claims to be ‘the global leader in door opening solutions’, has unveiled its new name, with the business known as Assa Abloy Opening Solutions UK & Ireland.