Delegates urged to ‘raise their game’

Examined first, however, in the opening keynote, were the broader challenges posed by the new healthcare landscape, albeit one where estates teams will still face many of the same key issues – a sizeable maintenance backlog, the need to cost-effectively provide a ‘safe, suitable and clean’ environment, an ageing demographic, ever higher patient expectations, and ever more watchful regulators.

This year’s annual IHEEM conference and exhibition, Healthcare Estates 2012, took place on 9 and 10 October at Manchester Central, alongside an exhibition at which over 180 exhibitors showcased developments ranging from a new ‘integrated’ seamless panel door system for sinks and toilets (designed by Steri-Spray, in conjunction with architects, Bowman Riley), to a system developed jointly by the Wandsworth Group and Airwave, which uses IP technology to link Wandsworth nurse call equipment with Airwave medical grade television sets in a configuration that enables nurses and clinicians to respond efficiently to patient calls anywhere within a healthcare facility via Android handsets. To provide the 340-plus delegates attending the various conference sessions with maximum choice and ‘value-for-money’ at a time when many NHS estates and facilities personnel, especially, say it is increasingly difficult for them to justify time away from the office, this year’s conference was again ‘streamed’. Thus, alongside plenary sessions at which senior healthcare estates personnel, architects, Trust CEOs, experts on sustainability and the built environment, and speakers from the Department of Health, BRE, ProCure21+, the LIFT Council, and the Department of Health, to name just a handful of those organisations represented, focussed on some of the key issues of the day, delegates could choose from a range of topical content based around four key subject areas per day.

A choice of streams