RECENT FEATURE ARTICLES

Sharron Kapellar, National Framework manager at Forbo Flooring Systems, discusses what she dubs ‘the change in healthcare design’, and explains how well-considered flooring specifications, and the optimal flooring selection, can contribute to a healing environment.

Dr Melvyn Langford, who worked for nearly four decades in the NHS, including as an estates and facilities manager, discusses – using mathematical computations – the factors that have long convinced him that there is ‘a fundamental flaw’ within the ‘5x5 risk matrix’ used to establish the relative urgency of backlog maintenance in NHS healthcare facilities.

Authorising Engineers (AEs) have a key role to play in ensuring the safe, efficient management and operation of key plant, equipment, and systems in a range of engineering disciplines in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, in accordance with key HTM and other guidance, and legislation.

Clare Tattersall, editor of the CHES magazine, Canadian Healthcare Facilities, examines the wide-ranging measures that staff at the Markham Stouffville Hospital in Markham, Ontario, have taken to raise the healthcare facility’s environmental performance and sustainability credentials since it opened nearly three decades ago.

Darryl Pitcher, who took over as the IFHE’s President from Douwe Kiestra at the event, reports on a highly successful 25th IFHE Congress held in Brisbane last October, where, in addition to the human attendees, the venue – Brisbane City Hall – also welcomed a variety of Australia’s wildlife.

An associate partner and strategist in the health planning team at construction, property, and management consultancy, Rider Levett Bucknall, considers a changing NHS estate, with expectations that, in future, more outpatient care will be delivered closer to patients’ homes.

A look at the critical role played by microbiological water testing in improving patient safety, and some key maintenance priorities for estates team to keep healthcare water systems running safely and hygienically.

New workplace management and occupancy technology is helping organisations in other sectors make large savings on their real estate while also improving the employee and visitor experience, says Raj Krishnamurthy, CEO of agile working solutions provider, Workplace Fabric, who here explores the opportunities for such technologies in healthcare.

The founder and CEO of ventilated cladding system specialist, Shackerley, discusses the use of the company’s SureClad ceramic granite façade system at the new £100 million Proton Beam Therapy Centre at The Christie in Manchester.

A specialist in passive fire protection solutions, ‘innovative plasterboard products and systems’, and fibre cement boards, has launched a new dense plasterboard with integrated glass fibre mesh which it says combines a robust construction – making it well suited to areas subject to impact, attack, and abuse – with excellent acoustic performance.

Where hospital budgets are under pressure, roof maintenance and repairs are often addressed reactively. A look at why establishing the condition of flat roofs and taking a long-term approach to maintenance, repair, and replacement, will help manage budgets more effectively

Specialist in high security and blast / ballistic-resistant doors and windows, Stafford Bridge, is set to considerably expand its portfolio in the next few months, and will be increasingly targeting the acute and mental health sectors.

A look at the need for secondary preventative measures – alongside thermal control – to guard against significant growth and build-up of Legionella in hospital water systems.

Surgeons at University Hospital Ayr undertaking laparoscopic surgery can now operate with much enhanced visibility, and stream live images of surgery for training both within the hospital and to locations worldwide, after the installation of Scotland’s first ‘4K’ integrated operating theatre.

Tim Sibbald, Water Regulations team leader at Northumbrian Water, looks at what happens during a Water Regulations inspection of hospitals and other healthcare premises.

Last month, speaking at the IHEEM 2019 AE Conference, Authorising Engineer, Andrew Poplett, explained how the assessment, appointment, and acceptance of key roles and responsible officers ‘can cause significant confusion and issues within the ever-changing organisational structures of both NHS and private healthcare providers’

A specialist in infection prevention, proactive drainage support, and research and development for new drainage solutions, discuss some of the major infection-related and other challenges caused by blocked and damaged drains. It points out that research indicates that there is a correlation between poor drainage and the number of superbug infections, with dangerous viruses, such as MRSA, C. diffcile, norovirus, and SARS, ‘growing’ in drains.

Fire doors’ importance in protecting buildings and their users continues to be ‘vastly underestimated’, particularly in older healthcare buildings, says Intastop, which recently held a fire door safety seminar at its Doncaster headquarters, with expert speakers from both the NHS and the private sector.

The L8guard software system from Digital Missives has highly impressed the Estates Maintenance team at Bedford Hospital, where it has significantly increased flushing compliance. It highlights around 1,600 sinks, showers, and washbasins hospital-wide, assessed as ‘low-use’, identifies whether they have been regularly flushed, and, where necessary, prompts staff to perform flushing activity.

Jonathan Waggott, of consultancy, Jonathan Waggott & Associates, a specialist in sanitary infection control issues, considers how the healthcare sector can adopt a broad range of more ‘sustainable’ practices – from using sustainable materials when building new hospitals, and implementing energy efficiency measures to cut both carbon footprint and utility costs, to a scheme where disposable shower heads and hoses are recycled into new ones.