RECENT NEWS

Portakabin Hire has delivered a complex interim health building for emergency care in just six weeks – two weeks ahead of programme – to reduce the pressure on the Accident and Emergency Department at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

During November the IFHE Australian Executive Committee member, Darryl Pitcher, travelled to Jakarta in Indonesia to support the good work of IFHE ‘A Member’ HATIMI, where he attended a national seminar.

Potential speakers for the 23rd IFHE World Congress, which will be held at the UCA University in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, from 12-16 October this year (HEJ – February, May, and August 2013), are reminded that abstracts must be received, via the online submission form on the IFHE website (www.ifhe2014buenosaires.com.ar/ papers.htm), by no later than 27 March.

IFHE Past-President, Yasushi Nagasawa, and a party of 21 of his healthcare engineering/architecture and planning students from Tokyo University, enjoyed a day touring some of central London’s most famous healthcare buildings, and sightseeing, in December.

A former Young Member Group Chairman of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers Hong Kong Branch (CIBSE HK), and former ECS Chairman of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Hong Kong (IET HK), has become a Fellow of IHEEM.

A recent North West Branch technical seminar hosted by Whitecroft Lighting in Ashton-under-Lyne, and chaired by Cundall Engineering Consultancy, focused on ‘Biodynamic lighting and advances in LED technology’, writes Branch Secretary, Tony Winter, energy and environmental manager, Technical Services, at the Tameside Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Thirty-eight members of IHEEM’s Northern Ireland Branch recently enjoyed a memorable two-day visit to Switzerland, with a tour of the Geberit Headquarters, in Rapperswil, Zurich, the Branch chair, Joanna Dougherty, writes.

This year’s Healthcare Estates Conference, Exhibition, and Dinner, taking place from 7-8 October at Manchester Central (GMEX), will be ‘even bigger’, the organisers, Step Exhibitions, say, with the outline conference programme set to be announced in April, and ‘further details on the positive impact for exhibitors’ due to be unveiled next month.

Work has begun on a new £6 million hybrid endovascular theatre suite at Manchester Royal Infirmary, due for completion this April.

Brandon Medical has launched a range of LED examination lights that it believes are the most advanced such products available worldwide.

BeaconMedaes says ‘stringent earthquake testing’ has seen it become the world’s first medical air equipment supplier to have its products rated ‘earthquake-proof’.

The Department of Health has published revised HBN guidance on the technical design and output specifications of windows and associated hardware.

Fabricator of windows, doors, curtain walling, and fencing systems, Britplas, says NHS Trusts and private healthcare companies across the UK, and other healthcare providers worldwide, entrust the company with the provision and installation of healthcare windows.

Capita has been appointed by NHS Scotland’s Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) as survey partners for Phase 5 in the implementation of an estates asset management system for the NHS estate in Scotland.

Crown Commercial Service (CSS) formerly known as the Government Procurement Service, and the NHS London Procurement Partnership (LPP), have reintroduced the Energy Managers Forum for the NHS in London and the surrounding regions, ‘to tackle the challenges of energy demand management and cost control’.

The Engineering Council (see also pages 18-22) has welcomed an announcement made by the Government which sets out its implementation plan for reform of Apprenticeships, building on the recommendations of the Richard Review.

Edwina Hart AM, Welsh Minister for Economy, Science and Transport, has officially opened the £30 million Hadyn Ellis Building in Cardiff, dubbing it ‘one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen’.

Twenty-seven NHS Trusts are participating in a year-long pilot ‘to prove that going to market as a single entity will deliver huge savings to the NHS’. Led by the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) and the Department of Health, the pilot has project support provided by procurement collaborative, NHS London Procurement Partnership, and is directed by a steering board comprising representatives of the DH, NHS England, TDA, LPP, and Trusts.

Starkstrom says SATS, its new automatic transfer switch, can ‘build even more resilience’ into the specialist medical electrical power supply systems for high care areas that the company has installed in hospitals for over 20 years.

A new trackless mobile shelving system that ‘promises to transform high density storage’ has been launched by Link 51. .