IHEEM has recently awarded Company Affiliate membership to Surrey-based provider of specialist ventilation cleaning Indepth Hygiene Services and international law firm Eversheds.
Indepth Hygiene Services marketing director Alan Norman said: “We became a member of IHEEM primarily because we have a growing business in healthcare, and felt a closer contact with decision-makers would benefit our future development. Simultaneously we felt our 30 years’ expertise in the public and private sectors entitled us genuinely to talk from experience and to pass this on to interested healthcare executives. “Whether deep cleaning air systems or grease extract, there is a genuine raison d’etre for both,” he added. “In the pages of Health Estate Journal, Dr Ghasson Shabha (Better systems for combating MRSA – HEJ, March 2009) presented a well-founded case for air systems as potential incubators and distributors of the MRSA bug, emphasising the need to have them thoroughly checked and professionally cleaned as part of the fight against hospital infection. “The Fire Safety Order, meanwhile, requires grease extract systems to be assessed and any fire dangers eliminated. As a fire authority spokesman recently commented: ‘If a building has an uncleaned grease extract system that probably represents the greatest fire risk to building occupants.’ We have considerable experience in helping clients prepare fire risk assessments and advising on implementing effective fire risk elimination plans.” The company’s deep cleaning services are undertaken in accordance with the standards laid down in the Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association’s specification TR19.
International experience
Law firm Eversheds has 47 offices in major cities across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and claims to have one of the largest healthcare sector groups in the legal sector, with dedicated teams specialising in public and private healthcare, and biosciences and pharmaceuticals. Recently crowned “Health Investor Law Firm of the Year 2009” (having achieved the same accolade, from HealthInvestor magazine, in 2008), Eversheds advises over 100 NHS bodies, private healthcare providers, purchasers and suppliers to the NHS, and internal investors into the UK healthcare market. Lisa Geary, head of the company’s real estate healthcare team, said: “With over 30 years’ experience providing services to the health sector, our team can advise on a whole range of planning, sustainability, construction, development, and real estate management issues. We look forward to working with IHEEM on a number of joint initiatives, and to sharing our respective expertise and knowledge over coming months and years.”
