RECENT NEWS

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has launched a scheme ‘to help ventilation hygiene specialists demonstrate their competence, quality, and standards’.

Businesses have yet to get to grips with the Apprenticeship Levy – a gathering of HR and operational professionals in the utilities and construction sector at an Industry Skills Forum co-organised by Develop Training (DTL) and Mentor Training Solutions – concluded.

The new Energy Centre at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital reduced the Trust’s overall spending on energy bills by over £230,000 in its first full month in operation compared with the same month the previous year.

Essentia Trading, the business wholly owned by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust which offers consultancy in areas ranging from strategic estate development to healthcare planning, has been selected for the London Procurement Partnership’s (LPP’s) Framework for Professional Services, which enables NHS organisations to use their collective buying power to purchase goods and services.

After a full competitive procurement exercise, the Fulham Road Collaborative (FRC) has awarded a new five-year contract, worth over £100 m, to its existing provider, ISS Facility Services – Healthcare.

A devolution deal described by the signatories as ‘ground-breaking’, that will lead to improvements in health and care in London, has been signed by the Mayor of London, Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, London Councils, and NHS, public health and wider health and care leaders.

The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust bought seven pedestrian-operated electric tugs from electric tug specialist, MasterMover, to improve porter efficiency and reduce manual handling.

The use of wireless PIR detectors from CP Electronics during a refurbishment of the Outpatients’ Department at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital in Broadgreen has substantially reduced labour costs, the specialist in energy saving controls says.

Automated vacuum waste collection technology that efficiently transports hospital ‘waste’ at up to 70 kms / hr through a network of pipes hidden underground or located within the core of the building to a collection station on the site perimeter has been installed in four Finnish hospitals.

Armitage Shanks has launched new Doc M packs to make it easier for specifiers and building managers to ensure that their facilities fulfil Part M of the Building Regulations and satisfy the 2010 Equality Act.

Businesses have yet to get to grips with the Apprenticeship Levy – a recent gathering of HR and operational professionals in the utilities and construction sector from companies including SGN, Siemens, Interserve, Skanska UK, Morrison Utility Services, and FCC Environment at an Industry Skills Forum co-organised by Develop Training (DTL) and Mentor Training Solutions – concluded.

An ‘exciting vision’ for the future of West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, and the health and wellbeing of people in West Cumbria has been revealed by North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, with what the Trust says are ‘ huge opportunities for people in the community to help shape how it will look’.

Building services design consultancy and IHEEM Company Affiliate, Troup Bywaters + Anders (TB+A), was commended for its commitment to training and skills excellence by The Princess Royal at a recent ceremony at London’s St James’s Palace.

This year, the team at Medical Air Technology (MAT) has chosen to make a donation to a local charity rather than sending cards and gifts to clients.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, has announced £6.3 bn in new funding ‘for frontline services and upgrades to NHS buildings and facilities in England’, in his Autumn Budget Statement.

Skanska has selected Hoval boilers fitted with Riello dual fuel low NOx burners for the New Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.

Ninety-four Fieger louvre windows installed at the Banbridge Health and Care Centre in Northern Ireland allow natural light and ventilation to permeate and provide visual connection with landscaped courtyards and gardens.

Designing state-of-the-art surgical skills training centres has become a speciality for Leeds-based Brandon Medical; the company has recently equipped two new ‘state-of-the-art’ surgical skills training centres at the University of Keele (pictured), and at the Smith & Nephew Expert Connect Centre near York, which specialises in orthopaedics training.

One of the UK’s ‘leading luxury shower manufacturers’ has launched a technology to help prevent scalding in the shower.

‘In response to customer needs and the evolving hospital environment’, BOC Healthcare has extended its training service to ‘incorporate a more modern, flexible ethos’.