RECENT NEWS

IHEEM has appointed Richard Knight CEng MIHEEM (pictured) as the chair of its Ventilation Technical Platform (VTP). The Ventilation Technical Platform (VTP) is the IHEEM focus area for technology matters relating to this subject.

Ingenieur Hospital Schweiz, the Swiss hospital engineering organisation, and organiser of the IFHE (International Federation of Hospital Engineering) Europe’s 5th European Conference for Hospital Engineering, to be held in Bern next April, has reiterated its call (HEJ – April 2012), for abstracts for potential papers.

One of the latest organisations to join the Institute as a Company Affiliate is VINCI Facilities, ‘a leading facilities management and maintenance provider delivering sustainable solutions for today’s business challenges’.

Keeping members up-to-date on the latest guidance, legislation, policy, and thinking, in a wide range of key areas is one of IHEEM’s major goals, and in planning a range of topical seminars and other ‘educational’ events for next year, the Institute is keen to hear from members on some of the subjects they feel should be covered.

With continuing interest in training courses designed to boost the skills, knowledge, and expertise, of existing Authorising Engineers working in key disciplines such as decontamination (AE (D)) and medical gases (AE (MGPS), and in the routes via which aspiring AEs can attain the standards required to secure formal registration.

Three new keynote speakers at this month’s IHEEM Healthcare Estates annual conference in Manchester (which opens at Manchester Central on 9 October) will be among 60 experts delivering content to an expected audience of more than 400 professionals, including representatives from over 80 NHS organisations and independent healthcare providers.

The Design in Mental Health Network (DIMHN), which is holding a special Workshop event on 9 October at this month’s Healthcare Estates event, will launch a ‘concept adult mental health bedroom’, ‘The Better Bedroom’, on its stand (D11) at the show.

The contractor building the new £21 million extension to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital says it has successfully recycled ‘virtually 100%’ of the associated waste.

Medical technology company, Brandon Medical, says that, with reducing operating theatre downtime becoming increasingly important as hospitals and clinics strive to cut patient waiting times, it has enhanced its post-sales service and support activities accordingly.

Medical Gas Services says it can now offer a range of ‘revolutionary’ cylinder brackets impregnated with an antibacterial composite and compounds that offer a degree of effectiveness against harmful microorganisms ‘unmatched by any competitor system’.

A new £5 million integrated health centre in Burnley, construction of which was inspired by HRH Prince Charles during discussions between Lancashire County Council representatives and the Prince at Clarence House in 2007, features C-TEC life safety equipment.

Pegler Yorkshire, which manufactures ‘water flow solutions’ for the plumbing industry’, recently welcomed Charlie Bean, Deputy Governor of Monetary Policy at the Bank of England, to its Doncaster premises.

The University of Salford is part of a Europe-wide project to develop technologies that will allow buildings to optimise how they consume energy and resources, harnessing wireless sensor technology and ‘data mining’ methods that ‘learn to optimise energy consumption, but maintain user comfort’.

With its impressive energy-efficient functionality, Zip’s Hydroboil Plus is, the company says, ‘becoming the wall-mounted instant boiling water system of choice in the workplace, particularly for locations such as hospitals that need to provide drinks for busy staff on demand, and are also looking to save energy and cost’.

As one of the UK’s largest ironmongery and doorset suppliers, Laidlaw regularly tenders for total supply contracts. In early 2011 it was awarded lead supplier status for ironmongery and doorsets for several NHS Tayside hospital projects in Scotland.

ISG has secured its latest project via the Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Contractors Framework, winning a £1.5 million contract to deliver a new endoscopy decontamination unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

A ‘high quality, low maintenance’ magnifier luminaire – the Optica 488 – that incorporates ‘the latest LEDs and innovative arm technology’, and ‘combines high efficiency with functional design to support highly demanding visual tasks’, has been launched by Brandon Medical.

Medicare’s HTM series wireless Nurse Call system has been manufactured to be ‘very easy to use’, and to ‘withstand the rigours of the care home market’.

Luton and Dunstable Hospital can now provide treatments including coronary angiograms, coronary angioplasty, and pacemaker implantation, to patients who would previously have had to travel long distances to hospitals in London and Bedfordshire, following its opening of a new £5.5 million cardiac centre.

It has been our privilege to work for the NHS throughout the UK on countless projects over the last 30 years – from small fire and acoustic screens to multi-million pound projects using our bespoke specialist healthcare systems.