RECENT NEWS

A request from senior estates and facilities management personnel at Somerset’s Weston General Hospital to replace existing ‘dark’ traditional lighting in corridors, wards, and stairwells, with ‘a more cost-effective’ LED solution, has been successfully met by Stroud-based Exled.

The British Water Cooler Association (BWCA) has published revised guidelines covering ‘essential safety aspects’ on workplace use of water coolers.

Daikin UK MD, Peter Verkempynck, has called for inclusion of commercial-scale air-to-water heat pumps in the Renewable Heat Incentive ‘as soon as possible’.

Technical training specialist, Develop Training, saw bookings for its Legionella training courses ‘more than double’ between May and June.

A private GP practice has commissioned Elliott Off-Site Building Solutions to design and build the new three-storey Oakland Medical Centre in London’s Hillingdon.

Taking place from 23-24 November this year at the Birmingham NEC, and with IHEEM one of a number of supporting organisations, will be what the organisers, Venture Marketing Group, say will be ‘the largest engineering and construction recruitment event in the UK for several years’, The National Engineering & Construction Recruitment Exhibition.

Members are reminded that the Institute’s Annual General Meeting will take place as part of the Healthcare Estates 2012 conference proceedings (see also pages 75-106) on 9 October 2012 in Manchester.

IHEEM will be among those supporting a conference on 14 September entitled ‘Dementia Design – Making a positive difference to those living with dementia’, organised by The University of Salford School of The Built Environment and School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, and to be held from 9.30 am to 4.00 pm at the University’s Mary Seacole Building.

GE, which recently joined IHEEM as a Company Affiliate, held an afternoon reception in mid-August at the former German Gymnasium in London’s King’s Cross to celebrate its new corporate partnership with the Institute, and give IHEEM members and guests a chance to get hands-on with some of the equipment supplied by the GE Group to the capital’s Olympic Park.

Fendor (photo shows the company’s new 50,000 ft2 Spire House premises in Washington, to which it moved earlier this year) will be ‘celebrating 30 years as one of the UK’s most successful commercial glazing companies’ by bringing an updated specialist range of healthcare systems to Healthcare Estates.

A ‘bundle’ of infection control measures using the latest Bioquell hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) disinfection technology has significantly reduced the incidence of nosocomial MRSA and Acinetobacter baumannii in one of Europe’s leading burns units.

The CARITAS Project, its Advisory Board, and its award judges and partners, have announced the award recipients in the third annual Generative Space Award.
One Award is being given to the Arlington Free Clinic, in Arlington, Virginia, designed by Perkins + Will. The judges said: “This project shows what can be achieved with a deep understanding of the needs of its users. The Arlington Free Clinic (AFC) is a private, non-profit, community-based organisation providing medical care at no charge to low-income, uninsured persons through volunteers and donations. The 8,600 ft2 facility accommodates three primary functions: delivering patient care, organising 500 volunteers, and fundraising.”

Following the success of the Static Systems Group (SSG) ‘Solutionsdriven IP’ presentation at a recent IHEEM West Midlands Branch meeting, the company is embarking on a series of UK seminars.

Isolated power supply (IPS) and theatre control panel manufacturer, Bender UK, which claims to be the market-leader in its field, has entered the market for theatre integration systems (see also theatre equipment article, pages 55-66).

A bigger proportion of English NHS hospitals are scoring highly for the patient environment compared with 2011, but slightly fewer now rate themselves as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ for patient food, and privacy and dignity, the latest Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) results reveal.

Penlon Medical Gas Solutions, part of the Atlas Copco Group, and a provider of medical gas systems, medical vacuum equipment, and pipeline components for hospitals, has opened a new production facility in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

David Bailey Furniture Systems has been awarded a £1 million contract to supply and install fitted hospital furniture for the newly developed, ‘state-of-the-art’ Southmead Hospital in Bristol, due to open in 2013.

As part of its continued expansion, specialist water control and washroom accessory manufacturer, Douglas Delabie, has appointed Mike Gillett, who has over 20 years’ experience in commercial sanitaryware, to the newly created role of head of sales.

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust (LCFT) has appointed OCS as its outsourced soft FM provider under a £15 million, five-year contract, that will see OCS deliver catering, cleaning, portering, helpdesk, and waste management services, across the Trust’s estate, which spans Lancashire’s 1,118 square miles.

Multidisciplinary property and construction consultancy practice, Pick Everard, has secured a place on the National NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) framework to supply architecture, quantity surveying, and cost management services, to NHS organisations in England.