RECENT NEWS

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’.

Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, which has recently launched a range of mobile endoscope decontamination units, has installed one of the first at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

Architects, ADP, and contractor, Logan Construction, have completed a major remodelling of London’s St Thomas’ Hospital – to create a new emergency care pathway in a dedicated emergency floor.

The London Clinic, a private hospital and charity in Harley Street, will be the UK’s first hospital to offer patients the latest diagnostic imaging with the new Siemens Magnetom Vida 3T MRI scanner beginning this September

Patients with cancer, orthopaedic, urology, and neurology conditions will benefit from high quality diagnostic scans with the latest 3T MRI technology.

Armitage Shanks, the expert washroom and bathroom solution manufacturer, has secured the national standardised sanitaryware and brassware specification for Spire Healthcare.

Spire was impressed by the company’s new clinical ceramic collection, Contour 21+, and its new line of healthcare fittings, Markwik 21+, with the ‘comprehensive brassware and ceramic basin ranges’ selected based on their ‘specific infection control capabilities’.

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

In a survey by OnePoll, in association with Jaga Heating Products – a leading UK specialist distributor of ‘energy-saving, low-water content heating products’, almost all (97%) of respondents said efficiency is important, while a quarter said it was the most important factor, alongside low running costs.

Washroom and water efficiency specialist, Cistermiser Keraflo, has joined industry body ‘Made in Britain’, which it says underlines its credentials as ‘the leading UK manufacturer in its sector’.

As a member of the national network, the company can now carry ‘the number one marque’ of British manufacturing on its products and marketing literature.

David Meacock, technical director for Cistermiser Keraflo, said: “In our industry relatively few products are made in the UK, but UK production is something we are committed to.

David Bailey Furniture Systems has been chosen to supply furniture for two substantial hospital furniture refits based in Wales – the £6.5 million upgrade to maternity and neonatal services at the Prince Charles Hospital in Mid Glamorgan, and the £5.8 million ‘state-of-the-art’ refurbishment of the renal unit at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital.

Selected by Interserve Building as its hospital furniture partner for both projects, it was tasked with sourcing fixtures, fittings, and equipment, to the value of over £90,000.

A fully functioning and compliant critical air system is crucial to the successful operation of the complex hospital environment, where downtime can be catastrophic for patients and business.

Onecom, reportedly the UK’s largest independent business telecommunications provider, has signed a UK partnership agreement with Sony Mobile Communications to sell, support, and develop the latter’s 'Internet of Things' (IoT) products and services.

Sony Mobile will work with Onecom as its exclusive UK-headquartered partner for ‘Tracking Solutions’, and also collaborate with it on ‘a range of solutions driven by smart connected devices for use in cross-vertical applications including business, infrastructure, transport and the public sector’.