RECENT NEWS

Matthew Barker has recently joined IHEEM as an Administration Officer. His primary role will be to be responsible for the administration needs of the IHEEM team, and act as the Institute’s ‘webmaster’, and to look after the organisation’s social media needs.

Following recent discussions with senior Department of Health Officials, IHEEM will be assisting the Department to raise awareness of the benefits of implementation of PAM (the Premises Assurance Model – HEJ, August 2010).

IHEEM is again supporting, and encouraging members to back, the NHS Sustainability Day, an international event on 28 March for the NHS and healthcare facilities outside the UK, which is aimed at raising awareness of the health implications of climate change, and encouraging changes in behaviour and action on the day itself.

The Healthcare Estates conference, exhibition, and dinner, will be organised by the Step Group in 2013; Step has organised the exhibition for the past 11 years (and the conference for many of these), resulting in the ‘flagship’ IHEEM event becoming established as the premier show for the UK healthcare estates community.

Dieselec Thistle Generators has entered the Sunday Times ‘Fast Track 100’ league table of the UK’s fastest-growing privately-owned companies for the first time thanks to a 68.61% growth rate.

Carillion’s new STN (Sustainability Talk and News) is ‘an exciting new online portal, which will host a range of opinion, comment, videos, presentations, and case studies, looking at key issues of sustainability from the building services and construction industry, worldwide’.

Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES) has won a £1.7m health contract to design, supply, and install M&E services associated with the development of the Combined Services Department (CSD) at Morriston Hospital, Swansea.

A practical guide ‘for professionals interested in using a competition to procure a great design for a new building or structure’ has been launched by the RIBA.

Four years after it move to Stockport’s Newby Road Industrial Estate, medical gas pipeline specialist, Precision UK, is once again expanding, and moving to a new, state-of-the-art design, manufacturing, and training facility, in the town’s Hazel Grove.

Users and suppliers of water treatment systems that use elemental copper for Legionella control should be aware that, from 1 February this year, it will be illegal to sell or use water treatment systems that use such copper to add copper ions to water as a biocide.

Kajima Partnerships and its construction partner, Mansell, advised by Indigo Planning, have been given the go-ahead for Bicester Community Hospital – Oxfordshire’s second community hospital in 40 years.

A ‘lack of transparency ‘in the market, leaving NHS Trusts in England ‘unable to make cost-efficient decisions about purchasing supplies’, is seeing such organisations ‘pay over the odds’ for everyday products, costing the taxpayer ‘an unnecessary £500 million each year’, say Ernst & Young and the product comparison website for the NHS, Peto.

Sodexo has won a five-year contract (with an option for a two-year extension) to deliver total soft FM services for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

The Wandsworth Group has appointed Ben Griffin as service co-ordinator for its health sector range of products, including its IPiN nurse call and Telecall bedside computing systems.

Low carbon energy efficiency, demand side response measures implemented at Stevenage’s Lister Hospital in conjunction with KiWi Power, a ‘smart grid’ and energy demand management specialist, are expected to generate over £100,000 annually in new revenue.

I was interested to read the ‘Technical editor’s view’ within the article on the Weiss Klimatechnik Mediclean CPM system in the November 2012 issue of Health Estate Journal (pages 71-74).

The Government last month published details of a ‘new approach’ to public/private partnerships – PF2, following ‘a broad-based engagement process’ last year that sought views on how the existing PFI system could be reformed.

Up to £50 million in Department of Health funding is to be made available to NHS Trusts and local authorities, working in partnership with care providers, ‘to help tailor hospitals and care homes to the needs of people with dementia’.

New Energy Management (NEM) has launched in the UK the IMECA Legionella Control System, which is claimed to provide ‘24/7 protection’ against microorganisms in water systems, and to be ‘proven to be effective’ against bacteria, fungi, spores, micro-plasma and viruses, including Legionella and Pseudomonas.

Vernacare has been highly commended in the 2012 Manufacturer of the Year Awards – joining an elite group of finalists, including BAE Systems, Coca-Cola, Ford, Rolls Royce, Sony, and United Biscuits.