FEATURE ARTICLES

Les Blennerhasset, technical director of Dortek, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading suppliers of hygienic doors to the healthcare sector, examines the potential difficulties encountered when specifying doors in the healthcare environment and how to overcome them.

Accurate, appropriate air-handling unit selection can increase energy savings and reduce carbon footprints, says Joe Wieckowski, general sales manager, Colman Moducel.

The recently expanded endoscopy facility and a new sterilising and disinfecting unit at St Joseph’s Hospital, Newport receive HTM 2030-compliant water via water purification and sterilisation equipment supplied by ELGA Process Water. Health Estate Journal reports.

Spirotech, the specialist supplier of deaerators and dirt separators for heating and cooling systems, examines how effective deaeration and dirt separation can control and significantly improve system water quality.

With construction work now underway on the new £227 million PFI-funded Pembury Hospital near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Jonathan Baillie talks to John Cooper of architects Anshen + Allen, who is convinced that this exciting new acute facility will become the first of a new generation of 100% single-bedroom hospitals in the UK.

Dr Sue Hignett Ph.D and Jun Lu M.Arch B.Eng of the Healthcare Ergonomics and Patient Safety research Unit (HEPSU), Department of Human Sciences, Loughborough University, explore the quality of research available for designers and clinical decision-makers in healthcare facility design.

A growing number of young patients at Sheffield Children’s Hospital will soon be able to keep up with schoolwork, access TV and other entertainment services, and telephone friends and family, all at no cost, following the installation of a sophisticated bedside patient entertainment/ computing system supplied by Wandsworth Group. In a believed UK first, the equipment is being entirely funded by the hospital’s charity. Health Estate Journal reports.

“Cluttered, dirty and overcrowded” wards, “sloppy hygiene” practices among nurses and clinicians, including use of commodes and bedpans that had already been “condemned”, and board and management-level failure to respond to repeated requests for more nursing staff, were among the major contributors to the 90 elderly patient Clostridium difficile deaths at three large West Kent NHS hospitals between April 2004 and September 2006, a recent BBC 1 Panorama programme suggested. Health Estate Journal reports.

Glimpses of micro-engineering excellence needed for new generations of operating theatre and diagnostic department robotics were provided at a London conference. Nicholas Marshall reports.

How the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has shifted responsibility for hospital fire safety from local fire authorities to so-called “responsible persons”, and the implications for senior management / board-level personnel, as well as for hospital fire officers, fire wardens and department managers charged with implementation, was expertly examined by a leading expert in fire law at May’s National Association of Healthcare Fire Officers (NAHFO) 2008 conference in Nottingham. Jonathan Baillie reports.

The use of disposable curtains is one of the key infection prevention measures adopted by a major Trust in London, reports Health Estate Journal.

Phil Wade, sales and marketing director, and Mathew Wakelam, VoIP product manager, at alarm and communication specialist Static Systems Group, discuss wireless VoIP’s potential in healthcare establishments and examine how, in particular, the technology can be successfully integrated with nurse call systems.

Following recent, high profile cases of public bodies “mislaying” sensitive information, Health Estate Journal considers the data security implications of increasing migration of patient and staff records to a central electronic NHS database, and examines the key issues for those responsible for maintaining such data safely and securely in hospitals and other care environments.

Bill Millar, project director, United Lincolnshire Hospitals, and chairman of IHEEM’s Authorising Engineer (AE) Medical Gas Pipeline Systems (MGPS) panel, describes the latest developments in the setting up of the Authorising Engineer MGPS Register.

This month’s 11th national Health Estates & Facilities Management Association (HEFMA) conference and exhibition, being staged with a strongly “green” approach, will focus on the evolving face of UK healthcare and its impact on estates and facilities services, examining how estates and facilities managers can respond to changing patient and business expectations. Health Estate Journal reports.

Ian Hinitt, deputy director of estates, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Department of Built Environment, University of Central Lancashire, and Dr Catherine Noakes, AMIMechE, Pathogen Control Engineering Research Group, University of Leeds School of Civil Engineering, discuss whether infection control can be improved by applying physical barriers and mixed mode ventilation, with particular reference to a proposed pilot project at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Jörg Höhne, country manager, Germany, at integrated clinical engineering, medical IT and telemedicine services specialist TBS DE Telematic and Biomedical Services, examines the benefits and potential pitfalls of outsourcing the maintenance and repair of key medical equipment.

Glen Hadfield, MIHEA, area assets and energy manager, Sydney West Area Health Service, reports on how the sizeable Australian Government health agency embarked on a ground-breaking energy abatement scheme, and the significant challenges overcome and lessons learned in the process.

The importance of suppliers of medical equipment and modular-constructed operating theatre environments working ever more closely with clinicians on technological advances is stressed by Bill Al-Khatib, managing director of Maquet UK. Nicholas Marshall reports.

Cabling specialist Connectix examines the growing potential for healthcare sector use of VoIP technology and highlights the importance of correct cabling infrastructure as a carrier of both voice and high-speed data traffic.