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What to do in a downturn
David Powell and Alex McKinlay, both from property consultant Drivers Jonas LLP’s planning and development team, offer some strategic advice on land sales in a downturn.

Hospital benefits from harmonious setting
Dealing sensitively with local wildlife, necessitating a phased demolition of an existing 1930s-built hospital to avoid disturbing bats and badgers in and around the construction site, was among the challenges successfully overcome by Mansell in completing the new Brentwood Community Hospital in Essex to a standard which has both delighted local people and secured the impressive new facility an “Excellent” NEAT rating. Jonathan Baillie reports.

A holistic approach to ward design
Three Iranian academics examine how existing experience in inpatient and other ward design can be harnessed to ensure the creation of comfortable, relaxing and, as far as is possible, individually “tailored” hospital accommodation in the future.

Cable management comes of age
Jeremy Dodge, head of technical services and product development at specialist cable management manufacturer Marshall-Tufflex, examines how the latest such systems are designed not only to be to be much quicker and easier to install, but equally to meet the higher aesthetic expectations demanded by estates personnel, and even to help combat infection spread. Also examined are the pros and cons of plastic systems over their metal counterparts.

Ground-breaking in more ways than one
A new cancer treatment and haematology centre which brings together into one modern, “cutting edge” facility oncology services from a diverse range of properties, many of them 1940s-built, at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital, is claimed to be among the most eco-friendly, as well as technologically advanced, such units yet seen in Europe. Jonathan Baillie reports.

ProCure21: friend or foe to Trust and patient?
With the current ProCure 21 framework set to be superseded next year, Elizabeth Smith, a former nurse, and now health accounts manager for ProCure21 at construction, civil engineering, and property services company Osborne, examines the fast-tracking benefits already afforded by a system which, despite its achievements, is still not without its critics today.

Cardiff event discusses ‘changing landscape’
Despite the current difficult economic conditions making it even more of a challenge for estates personnel to deliver the ever higher standards expected by patients, clinicians, and the Department of Health, the profession has much to aspire and look forward to, and numerous successes to celebrate.

Smarter ways shown to banish the bugs
Prototypes of new designs of 11 items of hospital furniture and equipment, ranging from a “21st Century” commode to an “intelligent mattress” that changes colour on becoming “compromised by body fluids”,

Heating and cooling benefits of CO2
In a paper presented at the Institute of Hospital Engineering Australia’s (IHEA) 59th Annual National Conference in Canberra last year, Klaas Visser, of KAV Consulting, examines effective ways to reduce CO2 emissions and water use in hospitals.

Report says lessons can be learned
How an overheating television apparently started a fire and a sizeable subsequent explosion at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital last September, the ensuing evacuation, and the valuable lessons learned, were the subject of an informative recent seminar presentation by Mike Ralph, at the time the hospital’s estates and facilities director. Jonathan Baillie reports on the presentation, given at a joint IHEEM and NAHFO “Fire Safety within Healthcare Premises” seminar in London.

What price carbon reduction?
Jane Southworth, senior associate, environment group, and Michael Conroy Harris, senior legal manager, construction group, at international law firm Eversheds, consider the key steps NHS Trusts need to take to prepare to forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme, and question what drivers currently exist to encourage delivery of healthcare buildings that play their part in carbon reduction.

Reorganisation reaps benefits in Canada
Cameron Shantz, a principal with one of Canada’s largest architectural firms, Parkin Architects, and project architect for a major reconfiguration and reorganisation of clinical and other spaces at the St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, describes the rationale behind the project, and highlights the resulting benefits for patients, staff and visitors.

Firm foundations for sustainability
Ensuring that modern healthcare facilities are designed, constructed and maintained sustainably is now as important as specifying the right equipment to provide the very best in healthcare.

Reducing risk with better tap design
Concerns originally raised by Welsh Health Estates personnel over the risk of patients, and particularly the elderly and children, burning themselves on the body of mixer taps incorporating TMV3 thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs), have, suppliers claim, seen a concerted recent drive to improve such devices’ design.

Rewarding excellence and commitment
IHEEM Council member Bill Millar, governance and compliance manager at the United Lincolsnhire Hospitals NHS Trust, has recently revised and refreshed the IHEEM awards documentation, which explains the criteria for entry to the various categories, describes how entries are judged, and details the awards on offer. Health Estate Journal reports.

Master planning – a new way forward?
Bob Heavisides, director of facilities, Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and senior research fellow, Medical Architecture Research Unit (MARU), at London South Bank University, considers, in a précis of a paper presented at last year’s Healthcare Estates conference, how a new master planning approach may bring significant benefits to the healthcare estate, arguing that, against today’s fastchanging backdrop, typical existing estates strategies may no longer be fully “fit-for-purpose”.

Approval scheme to ensure high standards
Louise Corfield, IHEEM business development manager, describes the launch of a new IHEEM approval scheme which should help members faced with a bewildering array of training course choices, in some topic areas, to identify those offering the optimal content.

Managing the PCT estate of the future
Ian Greggor, project director at international property and construction consultancy Cyril Sweett, discusses how, with the advent of world-class commissioning (WCC), the primary care estate may be most efficiently, and effectively, managed in the future, and the complexities and challenges commissioners and providers may encounter along the way.

Good acoustics central to recovery
Good acoustic conditions in hospitals and other healthcare facilities are known not only to benefit patients by creating an environment that facilitates rest, sleeping, consultation and treatment, but also clinical and nursing staff.

Step up in orthopaedic care for Stockport Trust
Specialist in the design and construction of modular healthcare buildings MTX Contracts has recently completed, on time and on budget, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust’s impressive new four-storey orthopaedic and surgical facility at Stepping Hill Hospital.

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