RECENT NEWS

A recent meeting of IHEEM’s London Branch saw Matthew Day, BEng (Hons) CEng MCIBSE FIHEEM MIMechE, regional partner at Harrogate-based consulting engineers, DSSR, present on new isolation rooms designed as part of the new wards and ICCU block at Sunderland Royal Infirmary.

The Institute has appealed for volunteers to assist with the registration process for Chartered Engineers, Incorporated Engineers, and Engineering Technicians. It is looking for Mentors, Reviewers, and Interviewers (see panel).

The theme for this year’s Healthcare Estates conference is ‘Quality in the Patient Environment’, reflecting the key issue of patient care, and the impact that estates and facilities departments can have on this.

Crofton, the consulting engineer, has completed the refurbishment of the 14-bed Wolfson Ward, which caters for patients living with Huntington’s disease at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability in London’s Putney. The £400,000 contract saw the company provide both M&E and structural solutions to refurbish the main occupational therapy room and common areas, enabling better care for the ward’s live-in residents. The architects were IBI Nightingale Associates.

Eric Wright Facilities Management (EWFM), a division of the Eric Wright Group, has appointed Andrij Korolczuk as operations director, following the retirement of his predecessor, Allan Mazey.

Assa Abloy says its ‘robust’ timber doorsets have helped to reduce maintenance and replacement expenditure at Lancashire’s Royal Blackburn Hospital, delivering ‘best value’ over the installation’s lifetime.

New child safety standards for internal window blinds in homes, public buildings, and commercial premises, have been welcomed by the British Blind and Shutter Association (BBSA), which says they are a result of its continued campaigning.

A Turbidity Monitoring System for detecting non-conductive contaminants such as fats, oils, and greases, in condensate, enabling steam system operators ‘to recover substantial amounts of energy that would otherwise be lost’, has been launched by Spirax Sarco.

Grundon Waste Management has acquired Arundelle, a specialist industrial services and cleaning company, in a deal Grundon says will enable it to expand its services into key areas such as confined spaces cleaning, decontamination, site decommissioning, pollution control, scheduled inspection and maintenance, and Hazpack /Hazmat spill response.

Codelocks is offering NHS estates and facilities managers the opportunity to attend a free digital lock training course to help them improve access control within healthcare buildings.

A new health facility for Barrow is now closer following Cumbria County Council’s sale of the former Alfred Barrow School site to eLIFT Cumbria.

MD of specialist ventilation cleaning services provider, InDepth Hygiene, Richard Norman, has been appointed chairman of the Building and Engineering Services Association’s (B&ES) Ventilation Hygiene branch.

Dalkia has supplied the St-Anne St-Remi Hospital in Brussels with CHP to lower its utilities costs via the use of a single fuel source for electricity and hot water generation. The system is expected to save the hospital some 370 tonnes of CO2 annually.

Specialist in x-ray shielding products, Raybloc, has developed a new twostage warning light for incorporation into its doors.

Liverpool’s Aintree University Hospital has worked with B&M Waste Services to reduce its clinical waste output by over 28 tonnes a month, while around 300 tonnes of ‘offensive’ waste is collected annually and sent to landfill sites, where the methane produced is captured and re-used to generate electricity.

The IFHE continues to enjoy a close working relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), writes the Federation’s WHO liaison officer, Paul Merlevede, who attended a Global Forum on Medical Devices held in late November last year at the Organization’s Geneva offices.

The conference programme for the 23rd IFHE World Congress, to be held at the UCA University in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, from 12-16 October this year (HEJ – February, May, and August 2013, and February 2014), is an extremely varied and topical one.

To help ensure that members of the Institute’s Yorkshire Branch fully understand current emergency lighting regulations and standards, Alan Daniels, technical director at P4, one of the UK’s leading self-testing emergency lighting specialists, recently updated Branch members on recent changes to the ‘pivotal reference code of practice in the UK’, BS5266 Part 1.

David Easton, chair of IHEEM’s Medical Devices Technology Platform, says he is keen that ‘all interested parties’ are aware that the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) has published its revision of the Device Bulletin 2006(5) November 2006.

meeting of Authorising Engineers (MGPS) – all members of IHEEM’s register for such personnel – held in London recently saw a variety of topics discussed, a work plan agreed for the forthcoming year, and our two overseas members from Germany.