RECENT NEWS

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 publication supports NHS figures that show at least £90 million is now being saved each year across the country compared with in 2014, through measures to become more efficient in the NHS use of natural resources. Furthermore, despite growing numbers of patients, the health and care system in England has, over the past decade:

The provision of advanced cancer treatment in the South of England has ‘passed a key milestone’, with the arrival last month of the region’s first high energy proton beam therapy system.

Ascom UK is deploying hundreds of its Myco smartphones to enable on-call doctors at the Royal Bolton Hospital to better care for seriously ill patients at night and over weekends.

Following its successful delivery last November of a fast-track modular Outpatients’ Department to Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital, MTX has won the contract to provide a modular Heart Clinic to the same site.

Courtney Thorne has opened a new sales office in Stockport, and has also welcomed two new team members as part of its continued expansion.

Energy efficiency is the most important credential when choosing a heat emitter, according to a recent poll of facilities managers.

Manufacturer of specialist biomedical test equipment, Rigel Medical, has shown its ‘continued commitment to expanding its global reach’ by opening a new service centre in Singapore that it says is the region’s first calibration, repair, and safety testing facility for such equipment.

Fire consultant, Colin Newman, has joined Gloucestershire based training centre, Eastwood Park.

STRIDE, the development joint venture between Health Innovation Partners (HIP) – a partnership between Community Solutions Partnership, the healthcare development subsidiary of Morgan Sindall, and Arcadis – and University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB), have received outline planning permission to develop a healthcare village, Outwoods, on surplus land adjacent to the Queen’s Hospital in Burton-on-Trent.

A variety of Polyflor’s vinyl flooring products have been selected for installation at North Middlesex Hospital’s new £17.9 million maternity unit.

Leaders and educators in engineering in all higher education establishments should develop ‘a five-year action plan for inclusive engineering education’, a report published last month by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) and the UCL Centre for Engineering Education argues.

Plans for a new £15.4 m hospice in Southend have been unanimously approved by Southend Council.

An increase in patient demand, and an ageing hospice building, have required Havens Hospices to review how it provides its care. The new Fair Havens Hospice, designed by LSI Architects, will comprise a 16-bed inpatient unit, a day hospice, family support, wellbeing, and charity administrative spaces. It will boost bed capacity and enhance services to meet the increase in patient numbers requiring palliative care in the Southend area.

Medical Air Technology (MAT) recently completed a high specification Containment Level 3 (CL3) facility for a leading UK university that wanted to expand its research capability. The new laboratory, situated on the top floor of the ten-storey faculty building, was partially funded by charitable donations and is part of a major ongoing refurbishment programme.

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 number of patients attending the Hereford hospital’s Emergency Department suffering from major illnesses or injuries traditionally rises through winter, but this year this increase has continued throughout the spring and summer months – latterly Emergency Department attendances have increased by extra 10-20 patients every day.

Brandon Medical has appointed Keith Jackson as CEO in the wake of what it says is ‘accelerated growth’ over the past 18 months – ‘proof of an expanding manufacturing for export sector in the North of England’.

Birmingham’s Edgbaston Medical Quarter (EMQ) has received ‘the green light’ to improve the mix and medical facilities at Pebble Mill, the site of the former BBC Studios.

St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, is celebrating a major overhaul of its energy centre that the St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says will reduce the hospital’s annual energy bill by ‘at least 10 per cent’.

Matt Hancock (pictured), the MP for West Suffolk, has taken over as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from Jeremy Hunt, who has been appointed Foreign Secretary following a Cabinet re-shuffle by Prime Minister, Theresa May.

The first funded apprenticeship programme for sterile services technicians at Level 2 is now being delivered by Dynamic Training and Eastwood Park.

Firedoors says its recent collaboration with alarm management specialist, Drax Technology, has resulted in the development of ‘the world’s first smart fire door’.