RECENT NEWS

Thirteen operating theatres – eight at Watford General Hospital, and five at St Albans City Hospital – have been upgraded by Starkstrom after the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust successfully bid for special funds from the Department of Health.

SRCL’s eighth clinical waste Alternative Treatment (AT) site, at Knowsley, near Liverpool, which was officially opened recently, is designed to recover 100% of the treated waste as refuse-derived fuel (RDF)

The RDF will be used in the cement industry as an alternative to virgin fossil fuels, diverting 4,500 tonnes of waste from landfill annually.

Balfour Beatty has been joined by Grant Shapps, the MP for Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, to mark the latest phase in the creation of the new £23 million Queen Elizabeth II Hospital.

The four-storey facility in Welwyn Garden City, being built for the Assemble Community Partnership, is approximately half way to its completion, and consists of 8,542 m2 of clinical and community space.

NG Bailey has completed its specialist role in the creation of two new operating theatres at one of Scotland’s major hospitals.

The new £4 m facilities at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary – equipped with the latest ‘keyhole’ surgery technology – were developed to generate extra capacity for the NHS to treat more patients, more quickly.

Kingsley Green Hospital near Radlett in Hertfordshire, a new adult acute mental healthcare inpatient unit, part of which has already opened, has selected Morley-IAS control panels as part of a sophisticated fire safety system.

Part of a £42 million investment by Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, the new development, formerly known as Harperbury Hospital, extends the existing psychiatric and care facilities on the site.

The ‘next generation’ in professional dishwashers, Miele Professional’s Hygiene machines are said to ‘guarantee perfectly clean crockery and cutlery for the care industries and hospitals’.

Miele Professional said: “The tried-and-tested freshwater system for commercial dishwashers harnessed ensures safe results: fresh water is introduced during each wash phase, and during rinsing. The water temperature in the main wash is a high 60°C, while the final rinse takes place at 83°C held for five minutes.”

Workplace designer, Cannon Davis, has created a radiotherapy suite at a facility in London’s Harley Street without using lead-lined boards by installing Safeboard, a Knauf X-ray shielding plasterboard.

The suite, six consulting rooms, and two operating theatres, forms The Whiteley Clinic, which specialises in treating varicose veins.

Work has begun on the site of the Institute of Translational Medicine Birmingham (ITM), a ‘world-class clinical research facility’ located in the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital, next to the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and the University of Birmingham Medical School, and designed by Glenn Howells Architects.

The ITM’s vision is ‘to use pioneering science to accelerate the delivery of personalised healthcare’, and cure disease and save lives ‘by applying transformative science and technology, and educating and training the healthcare workforce’.

Door hinges, and small fingers getting trapped in them, continue to pose a health and safety issue in many sectors.

Such scenarios could, however, soon become less frequent, says Intastop, with its launch of a finger safety hinge which should prevent fingers being caught in the hinge opening side of the door.

Howorth Air Technology has added a relocatable permanent or semi-permanent ‘isolation room’ to its portfolio – BioSphere – via which it says hospitals can safely contain HCAIs (healthcare-associated infections) and ‘provide absolute biological decontamination’ in just 24 hours.

A BioSphere unit can be erected around a single bed quickly and easily, and requires no remedial works to any existing services. A ward can have a single unit, or as many as needed.

Fulton has supplied a skid-mounted, dual-fuel-fired steam boiler package to Southmead Hospital as part of North Bristol NHS Trust’s £430 million PFI redevelopment of the site (HEJ – May 2014).

Steam from the ‘package’, featuring two Fulton 60J boilers plus ancillaries, is used during washing and sterilisation of surgical equipment and instruments at the hospital’s temporary central sterile services department (CSSD).

Elliott has unveiled ‘a cost-effective rentable building solution’ specifically to address health sector managers’ needs.

The company said: “Offered with flexible rental terms, the high quality modular buildings are able to integrate seamlessly with existing buildings, or to create new, standalone facilities. The cost is a fraction of that of a permanent building. An Elliott rentable building can be handed over within eight weeks.”

Elliott has unveiled ‘a cost-effective rentable building solution’ specifically to address health sector managers’ needs.

The company said: “Offered with flexible rental terms, the high quality modular buildings are able to integrate seamlessly with existing buildings, or to create new, standalone facilities. The cost is a fraction of that of a permanent building. An Elliott rentable building can be handed over within eight weeks.”

Laundry practitioners in the care sector can now, the professional laundry equipment specialist says, access ‘a wealth of professional support and guidance’ on best industry practice, following Electrolux Professional’s launch of a new ‘Good Laundry Practice Guide’.

The ‘extensive information pack’ – available free to registered laundry practitioners – boasts ‘a mini guide’ to hygienic laundry practices based on the RABC system / EN 14065, a catalogue of technological solutions designed to maintain optimum hygiene, and a DVD that demonstrates ‘the correct procedures’ in a real-life care environment. Operators wishing to view the video guides can also do so via Electrolux Professional’s dedicated YouTube channel.

Ian Sams has been named MD and general manager for Eaton-Williams Group, which provides climate-controlled solutions for environments including hospitals, commercial offices, and data centres.

The announcement was made by Mark De Vincent, president of CES Group. Eaton-Williams is an affiliate of CES Group, reportedly North America’s largest manufacturer of custom air-handling equipment.

The Carillion Health cleaning team at the Royal London Hospital is piloting ‘an innovative infection control solution’ via a six-week trial featuring a UV-C light ‘triple tower technology system’ reportedly never before used in the UK.

Carillion’s Cleaning Centre of Excellence’s ‘extensive research and investigation’ into using UV-C disinfection to control healthcare-associate infections (HAIs) identified a new system that the company says ‘overcomes the shortcomings’ of existing UV-C disinfectors.

Andy Sneyd has been elected president of B&ES – the Building & Engineering Services Association – for 2014/15.

A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers with an MSc in building services engineering, he has over 25 years’ experience in the sector.

A ‘pioneering’ new £1 million, 21-bedded ward at Warrington Hospital is ‘leading the way in providing the best quality care’ for hospital patients with dementia.

The social housing sector could play a key role in helping the NHS deal with ‘the twin threats of budget squeezes and an ageing population’, a new report from the Smith Institute, ‘Housing associations and the NHS: New thinking, New partnerships’, argues.

Produced with support from One Housing Group, the report was unveiled at Westminster on 14 July, two weeks after earlier Smith Institute research, published in the paper, ‘NHS surplus land for supported housing: why now and what are the possible cost savings?’, showed that joint work with the housing sector ‘could save the NHS up to £6bn over 25 years’.

A plumbing professional who almost spends as much time under the water as he does directing it through pipework is training tomorrow’s plumbing and heating professionals as part of their CPD studies.

Pegler Yorkshire’s 51-year-old technical trainer, Glenn Schofield, from Doncaster, who has won the British Championships, and played for Great Britain internationally, in the unusual underwater hockey sport of Octopush, is training ‘the next generation’ of installers at colleges countrywide, giving them the product knowledge and jointing expertise they need to make a successful career.