RECENT NEWS

Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust has completed a move of patients and staff into Hopewood Park in Ryhope, Sunderland – a 122-bed inpatient facility for adults, providing psychiatric intensive care (PICU), acute assessment and treatment, complex care, and stepped care.

Compass Group UK & Ireland says it is ‘continuing to champion innovation in health and wellbeing’, with the publication of its 2020 Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which outlines a number of ‘forward-thinking pledges’ that the company says demonstrate its dedication to help ‘feed change and fight obesity’ – divided into three key areas – Healthier Food, Healthier Lives, and Healthier Futures.

Kentec fire alarm control panels are at the heart of a recently completed fire alarm control panel system upgrade at John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford Women’s Centre, which will allow improvements to the its evacuation procedures, and the future implementation of loop-powered base sounders throughout the building.

Fremantle Court, the Fremantle Trust’s new ‘flagship’ care home one mile south of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, provides care support for 90 people in a two-storey, purpose-built building.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has awarded a five-year contract to facilities management provider, OCS, to deliver security and parking management services for its two large acute hospital sites – Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.

Altro has won a coveted award at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Manufacturing Excellence (MX) Awards 2014 in the ‘Innovation in Products and Processes’ category.

Cable management specialist, Legrand, has made ‘wide-ranging improvements’ to its powertrack underfloor power distribution system, ‘making it faster t o install, and more flexible than ever’.

Independent best-practice benchmarking specialist, i-Clean, has expanded its Efficiency Reviews to include Waste Management.

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), Interserve, and VINCI Facilities, have teamed with careers advice innovators, Plotr, via the Plotr online careers resource, ‘to help young people discover careers they didn’t know existed’ – in this case in facilities management’.

A £4 m refurbishment and expansion of the accident and emergency services at The Royal Oldham Hospital – which includes dedicated paediatric facilities, and was designed by IBI Group – is complete, providing more treatment bays, support accommodation, and improved links to critical care facilities.

Maintaining electrical equipment performance in healthcare facilities, and ensuring a long service life, requires a stable electrical supply.

Bristan has launched a new shower designed to aid commercial users in the complex task of ensuring optimum water temperature and infection control.

As part of its emergency response, the UK Government is deploying Vernacare’s disposable bedpans and urinals, together with its bedpan supports and hygienic commode chairs, to help doctors treating Ebola in Sierra Leone.

A modular building project said to be the UK’s largest and most complex completed in the health sector to date has been handed over and opened on time, despite a challenging programme.

The Energy Institute (EI) has added two new modules to its Advanced Energy Manager qualification covering energy procurement and applying standards.

David Bailey Furniture Systems’ steady growth in the healthcare, education, and veterinary sectors, has seen it further strengthen its sales team by appointing Barry Hamer – who, having previously worked for another leading healthcare furniture system supplier, and a special needs furniture producer, has extensive furniture sales experience – as sales manager.

Building engineering training programmes must be broad-based, so that apprentices and students acquire not just the skills and competences of this sector, but also ‘fully understand the operation of the entire construction supply chain’.

Apollo Capital Projects Developments’ proposals for a new ‘state-of-the-art’ medical centre in north east Ipswich have received the green light from town planners.

The University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s recent replacement of ‘traditional’ bedpan washing at University College Hospital (UCH) with the Vernacare hygienic human waste disposal system is helping to improve infection prevention standards, free up nurses’ time, and improve environmental performance.

Interserve has been selected to start work on an £8 million advanced experimental station and electron microscopy facility at Diamond Light Source on the Harwell Oxford Campus.