With the sustainability of UK healthcare facilities ever more in focus, the Institute was pleased to support last month’s NHS Sustainability Day of Action, at which London’s UCLH NHS Foundation Trust and the NHS Sustainability Unit encouraged NHS staff to think more about what can be done to make the NHS more sustainable (HEJ – February and March 2012).
Reflecting the importance of the sustainability agenda on the healthcare estate, IHEEM is holding two Sustainability seminars this month and next. To be staged at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel on 19 April, and at a London venue to be confirmed on 16 May, the ‘Plan Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’ events will be chaired by one of the healthcare estates community’s leading champions of a ‘greener NHS’, Trevor Payne (who will also speak), director of estates and facilities management at the UCLH NHS Foundation Trust, and one of the cofounders of the NHS Sustainability Portal. (HEJ – January 2012). Other speakers will include IHEEM Past President, Phil Nedin, global business leader for Healthcare at multi-disciplinary engineering and professional services company, Arup; David Pencheon, director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit; Philips Lighting’s sustainability manager, Katy Bryan, and national sales manager for Healthcare Lighting, Richard Tandy; Larissa Lockwood, public sector manager, The Carbon Trust, and a senior representative from the DeDeRHECC (Design & Delivery of Robust Hospitals Environments in a Changing Climate) Team from Cambridge University. Meanwhile, two IHEEM seminars in Leeds and London on 17 and 19 July respectively (venues tbc) will examine methods for minimising the risks of waterborne infection, water hygiene issues, competing and antagonistic risks such as scalding and environmental impact, and other key water management and impact reduction issues. Among the speakers confirmed for the seminars – aptly entitled ‘The Invisible Threat’ – will be Dr Nick Hill, technical director, the Water Hygiene Centre, and chair of the new IHEEM Water Technical Platform, and Clare Reynolds, laboratory manager (Water Testing), at Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. Also speaking will be David Harper, one of the leading experts in the field of Legionella, waterborne contamination prevention, and emergency response. More details to follow soon. For information on all IHEEM’s events, contact Siân Barker, events/education manager. T: 02392 823186; email: sian.barker@iheem.org.uk, or visit: www.iheem.org.uk/IHEEM-Events
