FEATURE ARTICLES

Joss Elliott, branch manager, Warrington, at national roofing contractor, Bracknell Roofing, looks at some of the ways that roofs can help health sector specifiers reduce a building’s carbon footprint.

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has announced that, as part of the new ‘healthcare landscape’, NHS Property Services (PropCo), which will be owned by the Department of Health (DH), will take ownership of existing primary care trust (PCT) estate not transferred to community care providers.

Scott Sinden, managing director of glass processor, Essex Safety Glass (ESG), examines some of the latest trends and developments in the design, manufacture, and supply of increasingly sophisticated security glazing systems, and explains how they can benefit a wide variety of hospital and other healthcare buildings in terms not only of improving the patient environment, but also reducing maintenance requirements and enhancing infection control.

Martin Wilkinson, national sales manager at system protection specialist, Spirotech UK, highlights the ‘potential negative consequences’ of value engineering in heating system specification in the healthcare sector, and argues that system protection products such as de-aerators and dirt separators have considerable value in preventative maintenance, and in helping to extend the useful life of both the system as a whole, and its vital parts.

The NHS has one of the world’s largest and most varied estates, which at any time accommodates many of the most dependent people in society. With around 6,000 fires occurring in NHS premises each year, its duty of care – and that of other healthcare providers – demands very close attention to fire safety.

Last month’s HEJ featured an article based on a presentation at a recent IHEEM seminar given by Dr Jimmy Walker, principal investigator, Decontamination, Biosafety Unit, Microbiology Services, at the Health Protection Agency, who provided valuable advice on detecting and dealing with Pseudomonas in hospital water supplies.

In response to the enactment of the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill, and following a ‘period of transition’ in the Department of Health, the NHS Estates and Facilities Policy Division has outlined an ‘agenda’ that sets out its key responsibilities and functions as the health service enters a new era.

Callum MacInnes BSc (Hons), AIFireE, an engineer at WSP UK – part of a global design engineering and management consultancy group specialising in property, transport and infrastructure, industry and environment projects – and his colleague, senior engineer, Richard Rankin CEng MEng (Hons) MIFireE, discuss the importance of passive fire protection in healthcare premises.

With an increasing number of NHS Trusts and Health Boards now incorporating single-bed en suite patient bedroom design into their hospitals, but with the protagonists and opponents no nearer to settling their differences on this form of accommodation, a presentation at this NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership Facilities Services (formerly Welsh Health Estates) conference in Cardiff on the experiences of staff, patients, and visitors, at Wales’s first 100% single-bed hospital, the Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan in Ebbw Vale, based on analysis and feedback from its first year in operation, provided some interesting data and conclusions.

The recent Ecobuild 2012 conference and exhibition in London focused on the key environmental issues and challenges for the UK construction, estates and facilities, and architectural sectors, as well as on the ever-broadening choice of ‘green solutions’ available from suppliers of everything from solar panelling to reed-based dwellings.

Many larger hospitals are sprawling complexes with endless corridors and rooms of varying purpose. While cleanliness and infection control are, understandably, leading considerations in any hospital building, fire safety also plays a crucial role.

With more and more care expected to be delivered from community settings and in patients’ homes in coming years, Ian Jackson, MD at specialist IT service provider, Imerja, considers how technologies like telemedicine, remote diagnostics, and videoconferencing, and even pills fitted with microchips and antennae to alert medics remotely when the patient swallows them, could potentially transform healthcare in the future.

Against a backdrop where the Coalition Government has said more ‘value’ needs to be squeezed out of existing healthcare PFI projects, Karen Prosser, head of the health sector team at built asset consultancy, EC Harris, and Russell Gates, one of the company’s partners on the same team, set out some of the key elements that NHS Trusts with operational PFI contracts should consider when undertaking a contract savings review.

Ken Marriott, an independent acoustics consultant with Industrial Commercial & Technical Consultants (ICTC), outlines some of the key acoustics considerations for those planning new hospital build or refurbishment schemes, cautioning that, all too often, this important area is not properly considered at a sufficiently early project stage.

Allan Kelly, facilities director at Guelph General Hospital in Ontario, Canada, and chairman of the Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES), describes how an independent water conservation assessment undertaken at the healthcare facility, and the subsequent remedial measures taken, resulted in substantial savings – both in reduced water consumption, and lower costs.

Health Estate Journal’s November 2010 issue included a fascinating personal account by Alan Bavis, facilities and engineering manager at New Zealand’s Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), of how he and his team kept essential hospital services going in Christchurch after an earthquake measuring 7.1 magnitude on the Richter Scale hit the country’s South Island on 4 September that year.

IHEEM’s recent seminar in Birmingham, ‘Dirty Little Secrets’, not only focused on the key priorities for keeping surgical instruments clean and sterile (HEJ – April 2012), but also featured a timely presentation by Dr Jimmy Walker, principal investigator, Decontamination, HPA Microbiology Services, at the Health Protection Agency, in which the highly experienced microbiologist shared his expertise on what appears to be becoming an increasingly prevalent problem for healthcare estates and engineering personnel.

Europe’s newest hospital, and the UK’s largest ever PPP-funded and operated healthcare facility – the £650 million Royal London in Whitechapel – opened its doors on 1 March – following years of hard work and planning which has seen doctors and nurses involved throughout, working under the guidance of a 30-strong Barts and the London NHS Trust New Hospitals Programme team to create an optimal healing environment.

The 15th Annual Conference and Exhibition to be hosted by the Health Estates and Facilities Management Association (HefmA), this year themed ‘Strong Foundations or Shifting Sands?’, takes places later this month (24-25 May) in Telforda

Tabloid sensationalism aside, the increase in attacks on health service workers has led to many hospitals and healthcare facilities re-assessing their security systems.