RECENT NEWS

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.

A range of Gradus wall protection and flooring accessories products has been installed within the new five-storey, £28 m Allam Building at the University of Hull’s Health Campus.

Tenovus Cancer Care, the cancer treatment and support organisation whose scientists developed the use of breast cancer drug, Tamoxifen, and prostate cancer medication, Zoladex, and which already operates two mobile support units delivering chemotherapy and lymphoedema across Wales, is to build what is says will be the world’s biggest mobile chemotherapy unit for cancer patients in the Principality.

Vanguard Healthcare Solutions has officially opened a purpose-built, 6,600 m2 transport and logistics facility in Manningtree in Essex as part of an expansion programme.

Managed services and multi-vendor maintenance specialist, Althea, has now completed the installation of three new linear accelerators for the Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at Royal Derby Hospital.

Work began last month on a new £12 m primary care centre in Barrow in Furness in Cumbria that will bring together primary care and community services on the site of a former school built in 1888 and given Grade 2 listing in 1993.

A ‘snap poll’ of Carillion engineering sub-contractors shows that many companies ‘are facing huge financial losses’ from the collapse of the construction giant, according to new data obtained by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) and the electrotechnical and engineering services trade body, ECA.

The two associations say Carillion owes around £75 million to around 80 engineering services firms, but claim that ‘the overall losses are likely to be far higher, given there are thousands of businesses operating in the industry’, with the engineering services sector the largest part of the construction industry by value.

BRE and the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) have released ‘a new, improved briefing paper’ that outlines how projects may achieve both a certified BREEAM rating and WELL Certification.

The updated document, ‘Assessing Health and Wellbeing in Buildings - Alignment between BREEAM and the WELL Building Standard’, was developed as part of a commitment to continuous improvement by IWBI and BRE using industry feedback from professionals working to achieve joint certification of BREEAM and the WELL Building Standard (WELL).

The liquidation of construction giant, Carillion, could lead to 'potentially catastrophic losses for thousands of SMEs', say the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) and the electrotechnical and engineering services trade body, ECA.

The two organisations explain: “According to its latest set of accounts, Carillion was holding over £800 m in retentions payments owed to sub-contractors. There is growing alarm that much of this money will be lost, leaving many more firms at risk of financial collapse.”

Carillion, the a leading international integrated support services business, which employs around 43,000 people, is one of the UK’s largest construction businesses, and operates in the UK, Canada, and Middle East, with annual revenues of over £5bn, has filed for compulsory liquidation.

According to a Financial Times news story, ‘Carillion collapses into liquidation’, published on 15 January, the move followed the failure of the Group’s talks with lenders over the previous weekend.

Forbo Flooring Systems will ‘very shortly’ announce an update to its ‘ever-popular’ vinyl safety flooring collection, ‘Step’.

Bostik has been selected by commercial flooring contractor, Pinnacle Flooring, to supply a range of sub-floor preparation products to the new £22 million Stratford Hospital development.

Polyflor says it has become the only flooring manufacturer to achieve an ‘Excellent’ rating for BES 6001 certification, a standard for the Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products as certified by the BRE.

Proposed parliamentary legislation designed ‘to dramatically reform the controversial practice of payment retentions in the construction industry’ was formally unveiled at a House of Commons briefing today, 8 January.

The Bill, being introduced under the ‘Ten Minute Rule’ by Peter Aldous MP, will have its first reading in parliament on 9 January, and has attracted cross-party support with the full permitted complement of 12 ‘sponsoring’ MPs, including Sir Henry Bellingham (Conservative); Barry Sheerman (Labour), Caroline Lucas (Green Party), and Alan Brown (SNP).