Riverside setting for Anniversary Lunch

Guests, who included the Institute’s President and CEO, head office staff, and a good gathering of individual and company affiliate members, heard from former Secretary of State for Health and Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt, on the growing internationalisation of healthcare, witnessed the presentation of one of the 2013 IHEEM Annual Awards, and had the opportunity to network with their counterparts from throughout the healthcare estates, architectural, design, and construction communities. The lunch was held in the Cholmondeley Room in the House of Lords; its balcony, with a commanding view over the River Thames, provided a congenial location for guests to interact before the formal proceedings. Despite a security alert in Parliament Square, which prevented a number of guests from promptly taking their seats, the event was a resounding success.

Parliamentary host

Before the lunch, the Parliamentary Host, Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan, a former Shadow Defence Secretary and chair of the House of Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee who currently chairs the All Parliamentary Group on Engineering, told guests he had been encouraged to hear that the economy was ‘turning’, although he admitted he ‘was not sure’ whether the recovery had yet reached all levels of the construction industry. “However,” he said, “there is certainly a long overdue optimism, and I would like to think that what will be a well-attended lunch is evidence of a return of some confidence to the industry.” Thanking the guests for attending, he wished all those gathered a successful event, and IHEEM a happy 70th anniversary.

Address from former Health Secretary

After lunch, IHEEM’s President, Greg Markham, welcomed main speaker, Patricia Hewitt, chair of the UK India Business Council (UKIBC), the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI)-backed membership-led organisation that promotes bilateral trade between the UK and India. Her recent involvement with IHEEM has seen her backing the EARTH initiative, a project led by former deputy director of estates at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Ian Hinitt, and three of his industry colleagues, which the participants hope will initiate the construction of a new generation of modular buildings to boost healthcare provision across India, while generating significant reciprocal trading and knowledge-sharing opportunities between the UK and India (HEJ – October 2013). Patricia Hewitt, who served as Labour Health Secretary from 2005-2007, and today holds a senior independent directorship with BT Group, began by wishing the Institute ‘a very happy 70th birthday, and many more to come’, before explaining that she had had ‘a nodding acquaintance’ with IHEEM since her time as Health Secretary, but had had the opportunity to learn more about its work recently through her connection with the EARTH initiative, and discussions with Ian Hinitt.

‘Interconnected’ healthcare

Describing the EARTH initiative as ‘a most exciting consortium project’, she went on to discuss ‘the current extraordinary current developments and changes in healthcare technology’, particularly in terms of the growing emergence of telecare and ‘distributed networks’ of healthcare sites efficiently linked electronically to a central hub. She believed such ‘interconnected’ healthcare infrastructure gave patients ‘the best of both worlds’ – with the ability to access the best possible diagnostics and specialist care, ‘mostly delivered where they lived’. She said: “It’s fascinating to see the way the healthcare estate is being transformed by the delivery of medicine and technology. I think, and I felt this when I was Health Secretary, that the debate about healthcare and health services is often dominated by discussion about hospitals, to the exclusion of what we really need to focus on. “As we see medicine transformed and becoming more and more specialised,” she continued, “requiring much larger, but fewer, regional centres at one end of the equation, but at the other, a transformation that will allow delivery of far more care in GP practices, local healthcare clinics, or indeed patients’ own homes, the places that people live in will become part of the healthcare estate.” Turning to another key issue facing the global healthcare community –‘lifestyle-induced’, and other non-communicable diseases – she said that even India, with one of the world’s youngest populations, was facing ‘an enormous increase’ in diabetes and other chronic illnesses, which were challenging its healthcare systems at least as much as those in many developed countries, including the UK.

A more demanding ‘consumer’

The worldwide medical community also faced ‘far more demanding patients and consumers’, who were not only ‘more digitally savvy and aware’, but who, ‘adequately supported’, could potentially be encouraged to take much greater responsibility for their own health and well-being. Without such a change, Patricia Hewitt believed it would become ever harder to deliver really high quality healthcare for an ageing population affordably. She told guests she was delighted that the Institute had set itself the challenge of becoming a leader in the international exchange of knowledge in this specialist field. She added: “It seems to me, just from the conversations that I’ve had today, and learning more about what many of the individual IHEEM members and organisations are doing, that you all have such extraordinary expertise and depth of experience to share with your counterparts elsewhere in the world.” She also felt ‘the extraordinary transformation’ in healthcare in India was one from which the NHS could both learn and contribute much, and was sorry not to have been able to attend October’s Healthcare Estates event, and to hear India’s chief public sector healthcare architect, Dr R Chandrashekhar, speak about ‘the huge opportunities for collaboration between India and the UK’, the EARTH project being just one of many developing partnerships being worked on at the UKIBC with the UK Government and UK Trade and Investment.

‘Internationalisation’ of British companies

She said in conclusion: “The internationalisation of so many British companies and oganisations and this Institute is vital, not just in terms of what we can share with counterparts globally, but also to our own future here. We have at least as much to learn from healthcare and infrastructure partners in India as we have to teach. If we can go on creating true partnerships of equals, I think the opportunity to build not just hospitals, but also healthcare systems that will hugely benefit the lives of people here, and in many other countries, are enormous.” Following Patricia Hewitt’s address, Ian Hinitt, who today runs both his own Bradfordbased outsourced FM company, Apex 4D, and heads 3DiFM, a separate joint venture company between Apex 4D and architects, Bowman Riley, whose goal is to develop modular ‘pre-engineered’ hospital buildings via the EARTH project to support the Indian healthcare sector (HEJ – November 2013), gave a short speech thanking both Lord O’Neill, the lunch’s host, and Patricia Hewitt, for their input and participation. He also thanked Patricia Hewitt for her support for the EARTH project. Addressing her, he said: “You are indeed a fine ambassador to our industry, and for this, and for many other services to healthcare engineering and estate management, we are delighted that you accept our highest honour in appointment as an Honorary Fellow of IHEEM.” Greg Markham then presented the former Minister with a framed certificate.

IHEEM Award presented

The IHEEM President also took the opportunity to present one of the Institute’s 2013 Annual Awards – the William E Schall Award for Excellence In Medical Technologies – to the 2013 winner, Jason Wilsher. Before handing over the award, he explained that it had been established by the Society of X-ray Technology, which was merged with IHEEM in 1990, and commemorates the life of William E Schall, the Society’s first President (in 1954), who remained an active member until his death in 1965. The award goes annually to a student who has recently successfully completed a Foundation Degree Course in Medical Technologies, Greg Markham said: “This year’s winner works for the York Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in its Medical Engineering Department, based in Scarborough.” Reading the citation, he added: “From the start of the Foundation Degree Course it was apparent that he was as passionate about his career, as his development. He enjoyed learning and taking on board new skills and knowledge, and, through the two years of study, maintained a positive outlook, and achieved fantastic grades in his assignments and a Foundation Degree to be proud of. He has just started a top-up course that will lead to a BSc Hons in Medical Technologies Management. The award is now presented to a worthy winner, Jason Wilsher.” The IHEEM President then brought the afternoon’s festivities to a close, and thanked both IHEEM’s head office team, and the host staff at the House Of Lords, for their part in the event’s organisation.