FEATURE ARTICLES

Hospitals are now providing feedback on a range of infection prevention technologies selected by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency for evaluation. Promising innovations include a system that uses hydrogen peroxide vapour for decontamination, and a test device for monitoring the cleanliness of equipment and wards. Louise Frampton reports.

Conor Ellis, head of health sector at international built asset consultancy EC Harris, argues that steps to “drive further value” from the existing healthcare estate, coupled with an approach to investment that mirrors best practice in the commercial sector, will be needed to meet patients’ rising healthcare expectations in an ever more competitive market.

With mounting pressure on hospitals and other healthcare facilities to reduce their energy bills, coupled with the need to reduce their carbon footprint, developer and supplier of combined heat and power systems Cogenco argues that adding CHP plant to existing energy generation equipment such as gas boilers has never made greater financial sense. Jonathan Baillie reports

Next month’s Healthcare Estates conference and exhibition will take place against a challenging financial backdrop, but one in which health estates and facilities managers are nevertheless expected to ensure that care is delivered in buildings where standards of cleanliness, safety, and overall “fitness-for-purpose” meet 21st Century patient aspirations.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, international training provider for hospital support services Eastwood Park last year ran well over 200 different courses, plus a range of NVQs, with over 1,500 delegates participating in its residential and occupationally-based training.

ISS Mediclean, the healthcare cleaning company and soft FM specialist, has established a permanent decontamination cleaning unit within a modular cabin-type structure at the South London Healthcare NHS Trust’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, in what is believed to be the UK health sector’s first installation of such a facility. Jonathan Baillie reports.

In one of the architectural practice’s largest ever contracts of its kind, Nightingale Associates is playing a major part in a £335 million local health reconfiguration project (the Greater Peterborough Health Investment Plan) which should see primary and acute care provision transformed in Peterborough and its surrounds.

Nigel Sharp, national engineering and estates manager at Spire Healthcare, says engineering has never enjoyed a stronger focus at the UK private healthcare provider and its predecessor BUPA Hospitals than it does today.

In a follow-up to a paper published in Health Estate Journal in February, Capitalising in the long term, Bernd Rechel*, Stephen Wright†, Barrie Dowdeswell‡, Nigel Edwards§, and Martin McKee# report on the findings of a research project into the financing, design and building of innovative European hospitals.

Health Estate Journal discusses with medical auction specialist Hilditch Group how Trusts and other healthcare providers can safely and gainfully dispose of, at auction, equipment no longer required, discovering how both buyers and sellers can benefit.

With new legislation on the horizon that will give authorised NHS staff the power, for the first time ever, to themselves order removal of individuals causing “nuisance and disturbance” from hospital premises, Health Estate Journal considers the key security issues facing the healthcare sector, explains the background to the legislation, and talks to a leading security provider, the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS), and two large acute Trusts, about how they overcome some of the security problems they face.

With new legislation on the horizon that will give authorised NHS staff the power, for the first time ever, to themselves order removal of individuals causing “nuisance and disturbance” from hospital premises, Health Estate Journal considers the key security issues facing the healthcare sector, explains the background to the legislation, and talks to a leading security provider, the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS), and two large acute Trusts, about how they overcome some of the security problems they face.

The challenges facing today’s estates and facilities managers in creating a worldclass, sustainable, care environment for individuals no longer “grateful patients” but instead “critical consumers” at a time when considerable uncertainty exists about how, and where, future patient care will be delivered, were discussed by speakers from the UK, mainland Europe, the US and Canada at HefmA’s recent 12th Annual Conference in London. Jonathan Baillie reports.

Mark Bosley, systems specialist at designer, developer and manufacturer of water purification systems for the healthcare and research sectors Purite, examines the growing regulatory framework governing the purity and quality of water supplied to decontamination centres, and discusses some of the latest technologies used to ensure the required standards are met.

Aspiring and experienced surgeons across the West Midlands can now hone their skills in a highly realistic simulated operating theatre environment following the recent opening of a new surgical skills training centre at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, said to be among the UK’s first such facilities to offer training using real human tissue.

Greater consistency in NHS signage, coupled with the assurance of a high quality, competitively-priced range of signage and wayfinding products and services, are among the benefits promised to estates and facilities teams UK-wide following the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency’s (NHS PASA) recent launch of a new pan-Government signage framework agreement. Jonathan Baillie reports, and talks to several signage suppliers appointed to the framework about their expertise, skills and recent experience.

As one of the UK’s largest builders of healthcare facilities, construction company Morgan Ashurst is accustomed to delivering complex, challenging hospital projects. The construction of a new oncology centre at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton for Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust – said to be the first new stand-alone radiotherapy centre to be built in the UK for almost 20 years – was no exception. Health Estate Journal reports.

With all aspects of hospital hygiene under the spotlight, Jonathan Baillie examines the important new role of Authorising Engineer (Decontamination), explains, with the help of experienced sterilisation/decontamination specialist Mick Compton, how the role developed, and discusses the key part that IHEEM will play as the only current UK institute with the authority to register AE (D)s as a mark of their competence and skills.

In an article based on a paper presented at the Institute of Hospital Engineering Australia’s (IHEA) 2008 National Conference, Glen Hadfield, manager, assets & sustainability systems, Sydney West Area Health Service, discusses the benefits of cogeneration, highlighting the experiences and conclusions gained via a number of recent projects at hospitals in New South Wales.

The financial and practical impact on healthcare provision of an ageing population, the growing pressure to design sustainable healthcare facilities, and the need for a more imaginative, innovative approach to planning healthcare buildings which meet both current and future demands, were among recurring themes at a recent conference staged in Holland by the NVTG, an IFHE national member and one of the Netherlands’ leading organisations for healthcare estates and facilities management personnel. Jonathan Baillie reports.