Among new members to have been recently welcomed into the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management is Ray Foley MSc MAPM MIET MIHEEM, who writes:
I consider the institute offers an encyclopaedia of healthcare information and I would strongly recommend becoming a member to those who, like me, need the best tools to work with in the healthcare sector. Membership will be very useful to me in the role I undertake as a director with the Mott MacDonald Group.
I was privileged to have worked as team leader on the Walsgrave New Hospitals Project located in Coventry. The £400 million development for the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire Trust and the Coventry Primary Care Trust was the largest PFI health project in the UK at the time of the award in February 2002, and the largest investment of its kind.
My role was with the construction advisors to the project company and managers of the Schedule 22 variation process over a period of four years. Close working relationships developed between the consortium members and both Trusts, Building Control and the WMFS Safety Team, and these relationships were paramount to the success of the project. My role in achieving and maintaining this positive attitude supported the delivery of quality healthcare services throughout. The project objectives were to deliver modern and effective clinical and educational facilities on the Walsgrave site.
Working alongside the clinicians, we advised on the programming of the department moves including transfer of patients. The old hospital remained fully functional throughout. I had to oversee a vast and diverse range of activities almost on a daily basis – these covered programming, planning, equipping, design, construction, testing and commissioning, fire safety, security, end user considerations and cost management. Patients were always at the forefront of planning to meet key objectives.
