RECENT NEWS

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust has chosen biomass technology from Rural Energy to heat its new £40 m mental healthcare facility, The Harbour, in Blackpool.

Facilities management provider, Servest Group, has appointed Mike Proctor as managing director for the Building Services division. He will be responsible for developing Servest’s Building Services offering and differentiating it from other mechanical and electrical businesses ‘by introducing innovative practices and new technologies’.

Architecture and design practice, tp bennett has secured planning permission for a new standalone hospice that will provide a purpose-built 4,000 m2 specialist palliative care facility on a generous suburban site on the old Ekco Radio site in Southend.

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) is building on its current presence in Belfast with the opening of a new office in Dublin.

Crown Paints has produced a comprehensive guide ‘to help specifiers get the full picture on the role colour can play in healthcare environments’.

Eastwood Park (see also page 41) has announced its first free electrical workshop for 2015 – to be held on 30 April 2015, commencing at 9.45 am for a 10.00 am start, with lunch and networking opportunities, and closing at 2.30pm.

The organisers of IHEEM’s annual Healthcare Estates event, Step Exhibitions, are working ‘with the direction of representatives from over 20 NHS Trusts’ to launch a new healthcare sector event aimed particularly at those involved in facilities, technology, finance and procurement.

A major assessment of the coalition government’s record on NHS reform by The King’s Fund concludes that the upheaval caused by the Health and Social Care Act has been ‘damaging and distracting’.

Vernacare has developed a new commode chair with ‘a robust, easy-clean design’ – to help reduce the risk of healthcareassociated infections (HCAIs).

BMI The London Independent Hospital in Stepney Green has unveiled its newly enhanced intensive therapy unit (ITU).

Pacific Care, a care provider with five care facilities throughout Glasgow and Renfrewshire, has selected Gerflor flooring for the corridors, day rooms, and toilets, in its new £4.2 m, 60-bed Mosswood Care Home in Glasgow.

Eastwood Park has announced its first free electrical workshop for 2015 – to be held on 30 April 2015, commencing at 9.45 am for a 10.00 am start, with lunch and networking opportunities, and closing at 2.30pm. The event will be held at its training centre at Falfield, Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire.

The operator of the world’s largest fleet of mobile operating theatres is targeting expansion in Europe in the wake of the ECB’s plan to inject €1.1 trillion into the Eurozone.

The Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) and Interserve Prime have established a new partnership.

In co-operation with industrial partners, the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed ‘permeable pavements’ to reduce problems caused by storm and run-off water in urban areas, well suited to ‘low traffic areas’, such as car parks, pavements, courtyards, fields, and squares.

Roderick Pettigrew has resigned as chief executive of the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES) with immediate effect.

System Hygienics has won a three-year contract at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire to perform annual fire damper testing on the facility’s ductwork.

Integrated property services and project delivery specialist, Styles&Wood, has completed a suite of solar power installations across three new healthcare centres in East Lancashire, helping the schemes achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

Medical equipment and services provider, Essential Healthcare Solutions, which supplies products and care solutions designed to promote independent living and rehabilitation to care homes, private individuals, and the NHS – from moving and handling solutions, to furniture and aftercare – has strengthened its senior team with the appointment of Phil Padgett as national sales manager.

Contacta Hearing Loop Systems, a manufacturer and field service company for hearing loop systems, says it now offers M&E organisations ‘a complete end-to-end solution – from system design and specification, through installation, to maintenance and training’.