Speaking in a keynote on the first day of October’s Healthcare Estates 2019 conference in Manchester, shortly after the director and head of Profession for NHS Estates & Facilities at NHSE/NHSI, Simon Corben, in his address, had emphasised the importance of a flexible EFM workforce willing to embrace new skills and adapt to new challenges.
Darryl Pitcher, President of the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE), explained how the profession in Australia is taking steps to boost the skills and capabilities of its workforce, and such personnel’s transferable skills, including via a new online tool for continuous recording of ‘on-the-job’ learning and development. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Elected as President of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering (the IFHE’s Council approved a name change to ‘the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering’ at its meeting at Healthcare Estates 2019) in 2018 , Darryl Pitcher is, in his ‘day job’, chief executive of Bethsalem Care and Greenbriars Village, a combined residential aged care facility and retirement village in South Australia. He has over 30 years’ healthcare engineering experience, and is a board member and Past-President of the Institute of Hospital Engineering, Australia (IHEA). As part of his role on the IHEA board he oversees technology and communications, and is editor of Healthcare Facilities, the Institute’s quarterly journal. His passions include ‘sustainability and innovation to deliver efficient and improved services to improve health and wellbeing’.
Rising to the challenge
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