FEATURE ARTICLES

Keen to address one of the major priorities on its backlog maintenance list, and, in the process, to significantly reduce both its carbon footprint and energy bills, Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has recently entered into a 15-year Energy Performance Contract (EPC) with Cynergin.

According to its architects, Maber, the Corby Urgent Care Centre is “the first of its kind, providing a combination of primary and emergency care facilities in a community-focused building that patients and staff agree is friendly, welcoming, and ‘unlike a hospital’.”

Paul Campbell, commercial marketing manager at British Gypsum, explains the role of plaster and drylining solutions in creating a healthcare environment conducive to patient recovery.

Keen to identify if there remained significant potential to reduce energy consumption in a ‘typical’ operating theatre, Tom Pierce, consultant anaesthetist and clinical lead for sustainability at University Hospital Southampton, and two fellow medical professionals, Gemma Morris, a Foundation Year 1 doctor at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, and Beena Parker, an ST trainee in anaesthesia at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

David Lewis, Principal and design lead for the London studio of international design and architecture firm, NBBJ, and part of the Carillion consortium designing the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital with HKS for The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.

With the Government Construction Strategy requiring a strengthening of the public sector’s capability to implement Building Information Modelling (BIM) protocols.

With the NHS having committed to reduce its carbon footprint by 10% by 2015, Alan Newman, a partner at building services engineers, Troup Bywaters + Anders (TB+A), describes how, with the company’s expertise and help, customer, the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, ‘surpassed the targets two years in advance’.

Dr Melvyn Langford CEng, MIMechE, MCIBSE, who was employed by the NHS for nearly 40 years, and, has written several previous articles for Health Estate Journal (June 2013, September 2011, September 2010, and November 2009) on what he claims are ‘systematic failures’ in the way the maintenance of NHS buildings has been managed.

Adapting the ‘Lean’ methodologies used for many years by many manufacturers on the production line – such as in the automotive industry – and deploying them in healthcare ‘spaces’ can, Roger Call, an architect at Herman Miller Healthcare in the US, argues, ‘easily remedy many of the inefficiencies’ found within a healthcare facility.

In an article that first appeared in the The Australian Hospital Engineer magazine, Cedric Cheong, managing director of Mycologia & Mould Worx, MSc, B.(Env. Sci.), TAE40110, examines the topic of mould exposure in healthcare facilities, and the associated duty of care for hospital facility managers and engineers.

In this article, Dr Mike Simmons, Public Health Microbiologist at Public Health Wales, and the clinical lead for Public Health Wales Microbiology Services to the Hywel Dda Health Board, examines and explains healthcare-associated infections, or HCAIs.

Although estimates suggest that, on average, some 30 per cent of all patients in general acute medical wards may have some form of dementia, Stirling University’s Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC).

In HEJ’s latest technical guidance article, Paul Reeve, director of Business Services at the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA), discusses some of the key issues surrounding dealing with asbestos when refurbishing healthcare properties.

Dr Steve Mann, a partner at the Worcester Street Medical Practice in Stourbridge, describes how he and a number of his GP colleagues have worked with architects, Abacus Architects, and main contractor, Amphion Construction, as well as with a number of local NHS and local authority bodies, to co-ordinate construction of a new GP ‘supersurgery’.

With wireless technology now an integral part of all our lives, and miniaturisation of computing power having made even hand-held portable devices such as mobile phones powerful tools in their own right.

With good fire safety strategy, and, for instance, ensuring that staff are properly trained in, and familiar with, the correct procedures should a major fire necessitate evacuation, being a key priority for healthcare facilities of all kinds.

An honest account of some of the lessons learned in how to protect patients, staff, and visitors, against waterborne Pseudomonas aeruginosa by effectively monitoring a large healthcare facility’s water supply, identifying potential ‘trigger points’.

The Legionella Approved Code of Practice and guidance (ACoP) has recently undergone a review by the Health and Safety Executive. Steve Mount BSc (hons) CBiol MIBiol MWMSoc, an independent specialist consultant in water hygiene and safety, reports on the first conference (held in Birmingham) to discuss these changes, entitled ‘Legionella management: The revised ACoP (L8); what impact will the changes have on you?’.

Even for a company where many employees have contributed long service, with 45 years under his belt at commercial washroom and showering system manufacturer, Kohler Mira, the company’s commercial marketing manager on the Rada brand, Roy Minett, has seen his share of change.

Speaking in a presentation at October’s Healthcare Estates 2013, senior representatives from a number of Principal Supply Chain Partners (PSCPs) within the ProCure21+ National Framework explained their ongoing work to develop designs for standardised and repeatable rooms.