RECENT FEATURE ARTICLES

Horne Engineering reports on the positive reception given to its In-Line Thermal Disinfection Unit by the head of Healthcare Compliance at Skanska, who had been looking for an effective means of combating the persistent challenge of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in hospital water settings. The thermostatic controls specialist says he is now an enthusiastic champion of the technology.

Speaking at a Westminster Health Forum policy conference held online on 21 February, Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health & Social Care, discussed the ‘critical role of infrastructure’ in achieving the NHS’s Net Zero targets. While acknowledging that the NHS had already ‘done an incredible job of rising to this challenge’, he noted three key areas where there was an imperative to do more.

At a Westminster Health Forum policy conference held online on 21 February, Dr Hayley Pinto, Education and Training lead at The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, discussed some of the biggest challenges facing the NHS from her standpoint as the service and its staff strive to meet demanding Net Zero targets. Worryingly, she said, recent surveys showed that less than half the UK population understand the term ‘Net Zero’, and just a quarter the terms ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’. She warned that ‘we could consider our collective failure to tackle climate change as a safeguarding issue for an entire generation’.

Dr. Jimmy Walker, chair of the Central Sterilising Club, focuses on the highlights of this month’s 2024 Annual Scientific Conference. He explains that delegates will be ‘in for a big surprise’. The event takes place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Gerrard’s Cross from 15-16 April.

In the March 2024 HEJ, Consultant Medical Microbiologist, Michael Weinbren, head of Estates Risk and Environment at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, George McCracken, Susanne Lee of independent public microbiology consultancy, Leegionella, and Consultant Medical Microbiologist at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Dr Teresa Inkster, argued that ensuring patient safety in new healthcare facilities requires a markedly different approach to design and construction. Here, in the second half of the article, they discuss some of the key issues requiring particular consideration against this backdrop to ensure a successful project outcome.

Thomas Cosker, associate at engineering consultancy, Buro Happold, shares insights on designing the London Institute of Medical Sciences’ new laboratory. The consultancy delivered MEP and lab design services, as well as sustainability, civil, structural, acoustic, vibration and fire engineering, to create ‘world-class technical facilities’ that now house over 40 different scientific research group

At October’s Healthcare Estates 2023 conference, offsite manufacturer, McAvoy, held a roundtable to which it invited a panel of UK industry experts – all from the healthcare sector – to explore the topic ‘How can decanting assist with the current challenges NHS Trusts are facing with the provision of new facilities?’, with a view to identifying some solutions. The company’s head of Design and Technical services, Martin Harvey, reports on an interesting discussion.

Sarah Melia, General manager at Bupa Health Services, discusses the steps that the Bupa-owned Cromwell Hospital in London has taken to become more sustainable over the last couple of years.

Three microbiologists and a highly experienced EFM professional argue that ensuring patient safety in new healthcare facilities requires a markedly different approach to design and construction.

Stuart Douglas, Director of Specialist Estates Services, part of NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, discusses issues facing Welsh healthcare estate management and engineering personnel.

Neil Campbell, Chief Sales officer at eEnergy, discusses some of the ways that healthcare estates teams can lower the amount of energy wasted in their buildings, and some of the other – in many cases relatively straightforward and inexpensive – steps they can take to reduce the carbon footprint of their estate and play their part in the NHS achieving its Net Zero goals.

Healthcare providers have a duty of care to patients. Along with nursing and medical staff, this includes the requirement that healthcare estates and facilities management and healthcare engineering personnel ensure that appropriate governance arrangements for critical power back-up at their particular healthcare facility are managed effectively. Alex Emms, Technical director at Kohler Uninterruptible Power (KUP), looks at some of the key considerations.

A new pathology laboratory building at Leeds’s St James’s University Hospital that will serve patients across West Yorkshire was officially opened in September 2023. The highly automated facility will serve hospitals across the region, avoiding considerable duplication, and significantly speeding diagnosis and treatment for many thousands of patients annually. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, visited the new Centre for Laboratory Medicine to find out more.

Three academics report on research, sponsored by the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to identify how knowledge priorities vary among NHS EFM staff across organisational levels

Following IHEEM’s work to strengthen and promote the role and importance of professional development and independent AEs across all its specialist engineering platforms, members highlighted the urgent need to actively support the development of AP and CPs. IHEEM’s Decontamination Technical Platform is now piloting a programme in Wales aimed at directly supporting such personnel. John Prendergast, an IHEEMregistered AE(D) leading the pilot, discusses the wider issue of engineering governance in healthcare facilities, and ongoing work to ensure that engineers at all levels are competent.

In this article, Walt Vernon, CEO of global engineering design and consulting firm, Mazzetti, and 2nd Vice-President of the IFHE, reports on work being undertaken at Valley Children’s Hospital in Central California which should see it become the US’s first Net Zero paediatric hospital campus, with contributions from the hospital’s Vice-President of Innovation, Ratan Milevoj.

Les Szabo, NSW (New South Wales) State manager at Australian water treatment specialist, HydroChem, discusses work to implement an effective Legionella risk management and prevention strategy for the hot water system at a Sydney hospital. Among the key steps taken to address the existing protocols’ shortcomings were establishing a proper sampling protocol, implementing a monthly maintenance programme for chlorine dosing, taking samples from locations on each floor – with a focus on showers, and installing a chorine dosing unit equipped with remote telemetry.

Business management consultancy, The PSC’s recent development of a so-called ‘Blueprint’ approach to designing estates reportedly both meets population needs, and enables integration of care.

Sean Woodhead, associate architect at BDP, looks at how the design of Heatherwood Hospital in Berkshire has helped support positive outcomes at this specialist, planned care facility.

Chris Brown, Public Sector lead at IES, discusses the need for NHS Trusts to be able to provide comprehensive data on current performance, and good evidence of the need for funding, to secure monies for heat decarbonisation schemes.