Risk management was in the spotlight at a recent IHEEM seminar held at Southampton General Hospital.
Staged in a lecture theatre at the hospital’s School of Medicine, the seminar was organised at short notice after the Institute’s events/education manager, Siân Barker, was contacted by the Infrastructure team at the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, who were “very keen to stress the importance of risk management, and the breadth of different areas and processes needing to be addressed”, to colleagues and sector counterparts. Attended by 32 delegates, the event was chaired by Mervyn Phipps – assistant director for estates, facilities and environment, at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. Topics covered, and speakers, were as follows:
• “Managing regulatory risk in NHS estates”: Duncan Reed – senior solicitor, Beachcroft.
• “Health and safety risk management systems and audit in estates”: Scheduled presenter Alan Hambidge – director, Empathy EC, could not attend, so Steve Lawley, compliance manager, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, delivered his presentation.
• “An alternative methodology for assessing backlog maintenance”: Dr Melvyn Langford – director, Healthcare Operational Risk (see pages 27-30).
• “Estates risk in practice – the need for robust records”: Steve Lawley.
IHEEM membership manager, Chris Parker, and chair of IHEEM’s southern branch, Chris James, also gave a presentation on branch activities, and on the wider benefits of IHEEM membership. Siân Barker said: “The event was well received, with a high proportion of those asked for comment on the quality and relevance of the presentations rating them ‘excellent’, and the majority feeling the seminar had offered good value for money.”
