RECENT NEWS

100% Hackitt – an industry initiative to encourage the government to deliver all of the recommendations contained within Dame Judith's report – was launched in Westminster on 22 October by Local Authority Building Control (LABC) and the British Board of Agrément (BBA).

The two influential organisations say they have united to bring focus to industry calls for a full adoption of Dame Judith’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety; together they are launching a new website, www.100-hackitt.co.uk, producing ‘pledge cards’ for supporters to sign up to the initiative, and pushing for an Early Day Motion debate in the House of Commons.

Develop Training (DTL), a leading training provider to the construction sector, is working with Ridgewood Environmental to stress the need to prepare workers against the threat posed by asbestos in the ground.

Ridgewood Environmental and third-party provider, DTL, have recently been approved by UKATA to deliver a brand new Asbestos in Soils training course. To launch the training they are inviting employers to attend one of two free seminars on Thursday 8 November at DTL’s Derby centre in Ascot Drive.

NHS Trusts in England are being strongly encouraged by NHSI Improvement to apply for s share of £46 m in Public Dividend Funding to implement ‘energy-efficient’ LED lighting in their healthcare facilities, in the process not only improving the patient environment, but also potentially cutting their annual electricity usage by 5-20 per cent.

Announcing the money’s availability during an ‘NHSI Surgery’ held on 10 October during last month’s Healthcare Estates 2018 event, Fiona Daly, NHSI’s National Sustainability and EFM Workforce lead / Operational Productivity, announced that against a backdrop where the organisation is ‘committed to working with provides to help realise savings’, implementing energy-saving LED lighting schemes in healthcare facilities had been shown to offer ‘proven return-on-investment’ and both maintenance and carbon savings.

Vanguard and Q-bital Healthcare Solutions say they are delighted to be supporting the Architectural Technology Department at the University of Huddersfield, where group of second year students have been given a brief to develop their own mobile healthcare facility.

The aim is to design a mobile healthcare unit that could be easily deployed by the British Red Cross to support medical relief in any post-disaster and/or post-war situation.

OCS has been selected by Community Health Partnerships (CHP) to deliver comprehensive cleaning support under a three-year contract worth £50 million.

The agreement will see OCS provide cleaning services across 180 sites, supporting CHP tenants throughout England. Petra Moss, managing director for OCS Healthcare and Education, said: “We are proud of the work OCS has already done with CHP, but this contract marks a very significant step in that relationship. We share CHP’s desire to ensure the highest possible standards of cleanliness, and are excited that the service we provide in its buildings enables clinical excellence to take place. This partnership is a positive milestone in our mission to ‘Improve Lives’.”

The Government is to give ‘more than £145 m’ to NHS Trusts countrywide ahead of winter to improve emergency care.

An eight-bedded mobile ward from Vanguard Healthcare Solutions has recently arrived at Hereford County Hospital to help manage the increase in demand on hospital services, particularly as the Wye Valley NHS Trust prepares for winter pressures.

The Midland Metropolitan Hospital in Smethwick – on which construction was halted in January this year after the main contractor, Carillion, went into liquidation – will open in 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed, after the Government and the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust reached an agreement to complete its construction.

‘Tremendous growth in both employees and membership’ has seen the DHF (Door & Hardware Federation) relocate to ‘a new and improved facility’ on the outskirts of Tamworth.

A new report from the Sustainable Development Unit, Reducing the use of natural resources in health and social care, shows that local organisations across the health service in England are saving money by making more efficient use of resources, as well as benefiting the environment.

The Carbon and Energy Fund (CEF) is looking for NHS hospitals open to working with it to investigate the potential benefits of installing an ‘innovative total waste and waste water handling system designed specifically for healthcare’ by Dutch company, Pharmafilter, ‘at no extra capital or revenue cost’.

BES, one of the UK’s leading specialists in the design, construction, and validation of high specification pharmaceutical, life sciences, and healthcare facilities, is to establish a southern headquarters in Milton Keynes.

Visqueen – part of RPC bpi recycled products – has provided a waterproofing and gas protection solution to the new Rutherford Cancer Centre North East in Northumberland, ensuring that it meets all local planning conditions.

Rockfon acoustic ceilings have been installed in a new ‘state-of-the-art’ health assessment clinic, Preventicum, in Central London, that offers ‘bespoke, indepth health evaluation and diagnostics, including full-body scanning’.

Utilising the PIC Framework, healthcare property developer, Prime PLC, has appointed national building contractor, Speller Metcalfe, to build a £6 m GP ‘healthcare hub’ in the centre of Hereford.

Static Systems has successfully completed a site-wide fire alarm upgrade and new system installation at Wexham Park Hospital, a 588-bedded acute NHS hospital near Slough managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.

As well as the main hospital building, the site has a large Post Graduate building, ambulance station, and staff accommodation, while a new 9,300 m2 four-storey Emergency Assessment Centre (EAC), currently under construction, and scheduled for completion by late 2018, will bring the hospital’s emergency department, ambulatory care, and assessment units together under one roof.

The British Woodworking Federation (BWF) and BRE (the Building Research Establishment) have joined forces to raise awareness of the importance of fire doors, and to help advance standards in their design, manufacture and installation.

The BWF and BRE said: “Fire doors are the first line of defence against devastating fires, and when properly built, installed, and maintained, save lives and protect property. Despite this, fire doors across the UK are still badly fitted, non-compliant, left propped open or damaged and, as a result, could be putting millions of lives at stake.

While free cooling ‘has the potential to unlock year-round process cooling energy savings for industrial end-users’, ‘a combination of scepticism and a lack of awareness’ is limiting wider take-up.

This is the view set out in a new ‘E-Guide’ from ICS Cool Energy, ‘Free Cooling: Break Free From The Cost Of Process Cooling’, which is available to download free from the ICS Cool Energy website, and outlines ‘how free cooling can cut process cooling costs by up to 80% compared with a purely electro-mechanical system’, and can be applied to any industrial application with a water leaving temperature of 10°C or more.

Property maintenance provider, Horbury Property Services, based in Rotherham, has won a contract with Chesterfield Royal Hospital in Derbyshire to provide planned maintenance and refurbishment services.

The initial three-year contract, with the option to extend or a further two years, involves looking after properties across the hospital’s whole estate – ranging from carrying out small repairs to large refurbishment projects.

BES, one of the UK’s leading specialists in the design, construction, and validation of high specification pharmaceutical, life sciences, and healthcare facilities, is to establish a southern headquarters in Milton Keynes thanks to sustained high demand for its expertise in the biotech ‘golden triangle’.

The Rochdale-based company has developed what it describes as ‘a world-class client list’ over the past 15 years, with customers including Smith and Nephew, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GSK, and the NHS.