RECENT NEWS

The University of Bedfordshire recently celebrated the opening of a new nursing simulation suite at its Luton campus.

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has revised and updated ‘the industry’s primary guidance document for kitchen ventilation design’.

Currie & Brown, a leading construction consultancy company, has been appointed to provide project management and quantity surveying services on an expected £136 million ‘pipeline of works’ across the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust’s estate.

The latest advantages in lighting technologies and controls are addressed in the new edition of Lighting Commissioning Code L, from CIBSE and the Society of Light and Lighting.

NHS Property Services has raised what it says is ‘a record amount for reinvestment in the NHS’ by selling the vacant and surplus former St George’s Hospital site in Hornchurch in Essex for over £40 million to national housebuilder, Bellway.

The transaction, handled by Savills, is the largest single capital receipt for a surplus site achieved by NHS Property Services since its establishment in 2013, with the proceeds all to be fully and directly reinvested in the NHS estate.

The updated BREEAM UK New Construction scheme has ‘gone live’, following BREEAM’s most comprehensive industry consultation to date.

The revision of what the BRE describes as ‘the world-leading sustainability assessment method for real estate’ addresses ‘key industry challenges’ around the performance gap, as well as lifecycle assessment, offering benefits for developers, investors, and users. It also adopts fresh approaches to sustainable travel and ecology to reflect evolving best practice.

The Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) have announced a joint initiative to explore the potential to develop a completely new form of contract explicitly for facilities management.

The initiative comes in the light of feedback from some BIFM members that existing forms of contract, developed primarily for use in construction or mechanical and electrical projects, did not meet all their needs. If findings from the project research uphold this, a new form of contract will be developed as part of the well-regarded NEC4 contract suite.

Over £2,000 has been raised by Courtney Thorne for the Bournemouth Hospital Charity to help the charity fund a new specialist MRI scanner.

Touching personal stories reveal why Courtney Thorne chose to fundraise for this charity.

IDEXX Water says it is committed to protecting public health through its ‘innovative technologies and simple-touse tests’, which it says ‘can identify microbiological contamination in water more quickly and more accurately than traditional methods’.

The Water Management Society (WMS) has introduced a second module to its City & Guilds accredited training course, ‘HTM 04-01 Water Hygiene Training: Managing and Controlling the Risk of Waterborne Pathogens in Water Systems’.

Operating theatres at the new £12 million South Lakes Birth Centre maternity unit at Furness General Hospital, Barrow-in-Furness, are benefiting from critical care power systems and surgical equipment supplied by Bender UK.

Bender Medical IT power systems and uninterruptible power supplies provide protection and resilience within the maternity facility’s electrical infrastructure. The two operating theatres incorporate Bender hygienic touchscreen theatre control panels, clinical pendants, and the company’s new Merivaara Q-Flow LED surgical lights.

A Patient Safety Alert has been issued by NHS Improvement on ‘the risk of death and severe harm from failure to obtain and continue flow from oxygen cylinders’.

MGPS Services says it is ‘pleased to welcome aboard’ Simon Colley, who, as an estates officer previously at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, was Authorised Person for MGPS, HVAC, LV, and Lifts, and Responsible Person for Water.

Utilising ‘years of experience’, and understanding that medical gas training ‘needs to be relevant and effective’, and that time available is limited, HAC Medical Gas Training & Services is working on training packages (face-toface and online) that ‘provide all training in the most time and cost-effective ways’.

Those attending Eastwood Park’s medical gas training are ‘reaping the benefits of the intensely practical nature of the courses delivered at the centre, returning to the work environment and delivering real savings on routine maintenance work’, the training establishment maintains.

The Royal Academy of Engineering has appointed a Policy Director to head up its new Policy Centre - an expansion of its well-established policy function that it says will enhance its ability to provide government with expert advice from the profession on national challenges that involve engineering or have an engineering dimension.

Conti + says its UK launch of the CNX water management system brings ‘a system scaleable to the most extensive healthcare facility’.

Centrica Business Solutions, an energy resilience specialist offering products and services ranging from demand-side response to CHP and battery storage, questions how well prepared healthcare facilities are for energy-related failure, warning that ‘even the briefest power outage can damage equipment and interrupt critical processes’.

The dhf (Door & Hardware Federation) has welcomed recommendations made in the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’s Interim Report, published on 18 December, and particularly that those working on the design, construction, inspection, and maintenance of complex and high-risk buildings are suitably qualified.

Work has begun on the United Arab Emirates’ first proton beam therapy cancer treatment centre.