Senior estates and facilities personnel, including the EFM director at England’s largest NHS Trust, the Welsh Assembly Government’s director of strategy, a top microbiologist, and the chief executive of the Health Estates Agency for Northern Ireland, will be among the key speakers at the 2009 annual conference of IHEEM’s Welsh branch, being held next month in the Welsh capital.
Being staged in association with Welsh Health Estates, the two-day conference and accompanying exhibition will be held at the Hilton Hotel, Cardiff, on 23 and 24 April 2009. The organisers say the “premier event for the NHS in Wales” will also be open to the private sector, and “to all parties interested in raising standards in the healthcare estate”. The programme has been designed “to address a range of strategic, visionary, design and technical issues focusing on the delivery of patient care and the patient environment”. The exhibition will be located within the conference suite for easy access. Attendance will provide an opportunity for directors, senior managers and clinical staff, along with estates/FM professional and technical staff, to update their professional knowledge in these areas. It will also provide an insight into the strategic challenges for the health estate within the new structure that will transform the Welsh NHS landscape later this year. The conference will be opened by IHEEM president Rob Smith, while Blair Sadler, director of America’s Center for Health Design and former president of Rady Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, will deliver the keynote address on both days, focussing on leadership’s role in the delivery of safer hospitals and the business case for healing hospitals. Other speakers will include:
• Bob Hudson, director of strategy, Welsh Assembly Government.
• John Cole, chief executive, Health Estates Agency for Northern Ireland.
• Dr Tom Makin, directorate manager, Department of Medical Microbiology, Royal Liverpool University Hospitals.
• Mike Ralph, director of estates and facilities, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, and chair of the Health Estate Journal Journal Committee.
• Darryn Kerr, director of estates and facilities, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (England’s largest NHS Trust), and chair of IHEEM’s Education Committee.
• Claire Rawle, partner, Morgan Cole.
• Benedict Zucchi, director, Architecture, Building Design Partnership.
The presentations will provide up-to-date information on a range of topics, including the management challenges of complex engineering systems, the control of Legionella, and the legal framework within which the NHS delivers safe healthcare environments. Additional presentations will provide a fascinating insight into the way the NHS coped with the 21 July, 2005 London bombings, examples of world-class primary and community care facilities in Northern Ireland, a presentation on the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton (winner of the 2008 Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award), and a case study providing an insider’s view of the North Wales Adolescent Unit in Abergele, set to be the first project delivered through the Designed for Life: Building for Wales framework. Exhibitors include organisations and companies whose interests complement and supplement the conference programme. The full programme also includes a gala dinner, with guest speaker Professor David Perrett, professor of bioanalytical science at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, who will discuss “Who has done more for health: the engineer or the doctor?” For more information, contact Ann Konsbruck, events manager at Welsh Health Estates: Tel: 029 2031 5512; Email: ann.konsbruck@whe.wales.nhs.uk
