RECENT NEWS

Trend Control Systems, the international manufacturer and supplier of building energy management systems (BEMS), has announced a new appointment to its senior management team, in the form of Stefano D’Agostino.

Leading life-safety systems manufacturer, C-TEC, has announced the promotion of Brian Foster to the newly created role of UK Sales manager.

The Water Management Society is to host a webinar entitled ‘On-site testing for waterborne pathogens and speed of response to contamination events’, presented by Dr Paul McDermott, director of PJM-HS Consulting, on 5 December this year.

Hi-line Industries has moved into a new, larger production facility in Burtonupon-Trent, to meet growing demand for its range of compressed air purification equipment.

A further extension to the Brexit transition period would be ‘hugely unhelpful’ to the construction and building services sectors, the President of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), Tim Hopkinson, has said.

He told the Association’s 2018 National Conference that ‘the one thing businesses crave above all else is certainty’, and that the proposal to extend transition arrangements after the UK leaves the European Union would further delay investment decisions.

A new purpose-built operating theatre has been completed at Bender UK’s Ulverston headquarters in Cumbria to offer what the company says is ‘a world-class training and demonstration base’ for new and existing customers to experience its technology first-hand.

The new theatre showroom was formally opened by Bender managing director, Gareth Brunton, on 5 November, during a first customer visit by staff from Manchester University Hospitals.

The demonstration room showcases theatre and clinical equipment offered by Bender as part of its turnkey healthcare solutions for new build and hospital upgrade programmes. It is connected to a plant room with medical IT power systems or isolated power system (IPS) and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to replicate power for group 2 medical locations, simulating events such as loss of power and shut-down.

The McAvoy Group has been awarded its largest healthcare project to date – a £15 m contract for the offsite construction of a new wing at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington.

Due for completion next Spring, the 6,500 m2, three-storey building will be linked to the existing hospital. The first floor will be fitted out as part of this contract to accommodate one of the UK’s first purpose-designed Ambulatory Care units, with the other two floors fitted out in the next phase of the development.

Medstor has supplied over 370 full-height and base cabinets, for use across the hospital, and which are said to facilitate location of goods and eliminate stock-outs, plus 250 procedure trolleys and mobile carts in a variety of sizes and heights, for the ‘new’ Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield.

Patients are set to benefit from radical advances in medical technology using artificial intelligence to diagnose diseases at an earlier stage, with the announcement by Business Secretary, Greg Clark, of five new centres of excellence – in Leeds, Oxford, Coventry, Glasgow, and London – for digital pathology and imaging, including radiology, using AI medical advances.

Medical Air Technology (MAT) recently completed the total refurbishment of four ultraclean operating theatres at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital, working with Kier and NG Bailey.

Confirmation of the extra £20.5 bn more in ‘real terms’ annual funding for the NHS by 2023-2024 announced this June, – including at least £2 bn annually for mental health, and an end to the use of the current PFI model, were among the notable elements impacting on health and social care in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s 2018 Budget Speech delivered on 29 October.

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.