Twenty-four members and guests from IHEEM’s North-West Branch recently visited the Robinson’s Brewery in Stockport, to be ‘educated in the brewing process’.
“A £10 million refit has recently taken place at the site, which has seen stateof- the-art technology applied to a process undertaken there for 175 years,” writes Branch committee member, and environmental manager at Tameside General Hospital, Tony Winter. “Many of the systems used in the brewery, especially piped systems, can easily be related to those witnessed in hospitals, with the exception, of course, of the pipe labelled ‘beer’. The tour was followed by a buffet and sampling of the various beers.” As part of the event, former IHEEM president, Bill Smith, presented Keith Feay, an IHEEM member since 1987, and North-West Branch committee member for 26 years, who has recently stood down ‘to start enjoying his retirement in earnest’, with a lead crystal decanter. Inscribed with the IHEEM crest and a message of gratitude, it was an appropriate gift, since Keith Feay spent many years as an X-ray engineer. He also received a bottle of a single malt whisky to fill the decanter. Having joined the Society of X-ray Technology in 1968, later serving as North West Branch chairman, Keith Feay became a British Standards X-ray committee member for the Society in 1985, later transferring to the Institute of Hospital Engineering. and subsequently to IHEEM, of which he remains a member. He joined the IHE North-West Branch Committee in 1988. In 2009 he won The Lucas Scholarship, and in 2010 received the Northcroft Silver Medal – for his November 2009 HEJ article about his work helping a charity supply medical equipment to hospitals in Malawi.
