RECENT NEWS

Bathroom pod manufacturer, Offsite Solutions, has been awarded the contract to supply bathroom pods for the new £69 m East Lothian Community Hospital.

A recent decontamination seminar held at Eastwood Park in conjunction with IHEEM saw eminent speakers including 3M Development Scientist, Dr Brian Kirk (pictured addressing delegates), and Science and Technical director at STERIS Corporation, Richard Bancroft, discuss the application of chemical and biological process indicators and low temperature sterilisation processes.

DELABIE’s BIOCLIP mixers play an important role in infection control. They protect patients and staff from scalding where temperature control is the primary method of managing Legionella in water systems. However, they also offer estate teams flexibility when scheduling routine maintenance and long term facility planning.

The latest information on the legal duties and responsibilities for owners and users of liquid gas storage tanks has been issued by the British Compressed Gases Association (BCGA).

UK-based lighting, operating theatre equipment, and medical ‘AV’ systems specialist, Brandon Medical, has received a letter of gratitude from John Lownds, deputy head of trade at the UKTI Life Sciences Organisation, in recognition of its continuing success overseas.

Ascom, a ‘global healthcare ICT and mobile workflow solutions provider’, and medical and safety technology specialist, Dräger, are to partner to integrate Ascom’s Unite clinical messaging platform and Dräger’s patient monitoring systems.

A ‘complete Altro floors and walls solution’ has given a relaxing, stylish, and ‘home-from-home’ feel to a new birthing centre at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital.

NHS Property Services (NHSPS) has launched a ‘vacant space handback scheme’ to help NHS commissioners cut the cost of empty space in their buildings.

The new £28 million hospital wing at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) features a ‘bespoke’ Aid Call Touchsafe Pro wireless nurse call system.

IDEXX, a specialist in rapid microbiology testing for water, has announced the launch across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, of Legiolert, a new culture testing method that it says enables building owners and facility managers to simplify water testing and reduce the risk posed by Legionnaires’ disease.

Eastwood Park will from this month be offering ‘a unique suite’ of new 1.5-day hospital estate-related courses, focusing on ‘PFI’, ‘the Premises Assurance Model (PAM) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC)’, and ‘Energy management and sustainability’, delivered in partnership with estates and facilities management experts, GK Group.

A comprehensive new 120-page guide to carbon and energy saving for NHS Trusts co-produced by IHEEM, HefmA, and the Carbon and Energy Fund (CEF), which the authors say ‘covers every aspect of the energy infrastructure upgrade process’, will be launched at this month’s Healthcare Estates 2017 event in Manchester.

Cundall has supported Edinburgh-based charity, It’s good 2 give!, by helping build Ripple Retreat, its recently opened respite house for young people with cancer and their families, ‘a beautifully serene £1 m retreat’ on the southern bank of Loch Venachar in Callander.

Work has now started on a new £16.4 millon staff accommodation block for ‘key workers’ at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby (see artist’s impression).

Vinyl flooring manufacturer, Polyflor, has added new wood effect designs to its relaunched Forest fx PUR flooring collection, incorporating the latest commercial interior trends into one of its most popular sheet vinyl ranges.

Rehau’s Heritage windows have recently met Whipps Cross Hospital’s criteria for replacement windows as part of a wider refurbishment of its wards that would not look out of place in the Grade II listed building, but still offered the benefits of new PVC-U windows.

The latest combined heat and power technology from Veolia will power the first NHS high energy Proton Beam Therapy Centre for specialist cancer treatment, at The Christie, in Manchester, which is due to start treating oncology patients in 2018.

Chris Ash, managing director at ISS Healthcare, has been recognised for his outstanding contribution to the healthcare business sector worldwide.

A two-day workshop being hosted by Greenwich University’s Built Environment Department in London from 1-2 November this year will aim to equip clinical staff who are, or who are about to be, involved in NHS capital projects, more fully, so that they can engage more authoritatively with project teams during the planning and construction/ refurbishment of healthcare buildings.

Following its delivery of hard and soft landscaping and the recently awarded grounds maintenance contract for Liverpool’s Alder Hey in the Park children’s hospital, commercial landscaping company, Ground Control, has been supporting Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust by donating soil, wood sleepers, and gardening tools, to enable the local community, patients, and staff, to plant and grow organic ingredients on site for use in patient meals.