RECENT NEWS

IHEEM is supporting a one-day seminar on Improving air quality in healthcare facilities, being held by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) at its London headquarters at One Birdcage Walk on 7 November.

Micad says its Annual User event, being held on 11 September, will be the biggest staged by the company so far, with over 150 delegates expected.

Consulting engineer, Crofton, has completed a ‘challenging’ M&E contract at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital in Kent, as part of the delivery, by Cardy Construction, of a new ‘high tech’ orthopaedic operating theatre and modern obstetric operating theatre there.

The Care Quality Commission (CWC) has told Barts Health NHS Trust it must make ‘urgent improvements to protect patients’ at Whipps Cross University Hospital after issuing three formal warnings following unannounced inspections at the facility in Leytonstone in May and June. The inspection team included ‘experts by experience’ (service users), a practising midwife, and a practising surgical unit manager.

Dennis Markey has been appointed, and has now taken up the role, of Chief Operating Officer for NHS Property Services.

Healthcare estates personnel responsible for the safe management of water systems can put their questions on all aspects of the revised ACoP (L8) document to experts at a one-day ‘Q&A’ event being held by new training company, Immerse Training, at the Best Western Plus Manor House Hotel, in Meriden, near Solihull, on 11 September.

Atlas Copco has developed ‘an advanced medical air plant calculation tool’ to assist with correct selection of a medical air plant based around the different medical gas standards set out within ISO7396-1, HTM 02-01, and HTM2022.

‘State-of-the-art’ lighting and electrical protection systems supplied and commissioned by Bender UK are enhancing a new £300,000 ultra cleanair theatre for orthopaedic implant surgery at Furness General Hospital, Barrow-in-Furness.

EBME managers and technicians attending Eastwood Park for the latest accredited medical equipment training are now benefiting from ‘substantial development and investment in this niche technical training portfolio’.

Abloy UK’s supply of high-security CLIQ cylinders and keys to Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to upgrade the security of the drug cabinets at Scunthorpe General Hospital has resulted in ‘significant cost and time savings’.

Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for ‘serious safety breaches’, and fined, after a vulnerable patient at Southend Hospital died after falling nine metres from a third-floor window fitted only with a single restrictor in July 2010.

International ‘total facilities management provider’, OCS, has appointed Jane Sheard as UK managing director of Facilities Services.

Gradus has updated its wall protection catalogue, which now contains informative 3D and 2D drawings, and information on new products and current legislation.

Public Health England (PHE) and the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust have recently officially opened a new two-storey extension to the current pathology building on the Heartlands Hospital site in Birmingham.

West London Mental Health NHS Trust has named Kier as preferred tenderer for the Broadmoor Hospital redevelopment scheme. (HEJ – February 2013) in a project set to ‘transport the 150-year-old hospital into the 21st century’, providing ‘a modern, fit-for-purpose environment for services’, and securing the future of high secure mental healthcare locally.

The organisers of the 2014 (23rd) IFHE Congress, being held in October next year in Buenos Aires, have revealed more details on the planned conference topics under the overall event theme of ‘The planning and design of buildings for health’.

IHEEM was pleased to host the IFHE President, Ole Rist, and the organisation’s General Secretary, Gunnar Baekken, at a recent meeting of the International Technical Platform held at Arup’s offices in London, which followed a meeting of the Institute’s Council.

Over 25 international articles have been received for the 2014 IFHE Digest, after a call for article synopses was made in the last (May 2013) ‘IFHE’ edition of Health Estate Journal, writes Andy Wavell, IHEEM’s IFHE representative, and the Digest’s commissioning editor.

IHEEM’s President, Greg Markham is encouraging the Institute’s members to engage with their local Branches and offer support and ideas for technical visits, ‘fringe themes’, and social events, as part of IHEEM’s planned bid for the IFHE’s 2018 International Congress.

As IHEEM often points out through articles in this Journal, and as the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) puts it in the latest issue of the Engineering Council’s ‘Register News’ newsletter (May 2013; www.tinyurl.com/lvshjgs).