RECENT NEWS

Haigh will be showing their latest development in bedpan macerator technology with a new disposer which is smaller than any other machine on the market, has a faster cycle time, along with lower water and electrical consumption. This will further extend the Panaway range to three models with the award winning Panaway and recently launched Classic+ continuing to be available.

With time an increasingly precious commodity in today’s frenetic business world, the organisers of this year’s Healthcare Estates Conference and Exhibition promise that visiting the event will be an investment worth making; indeed one that will be “repaid many times over in subsequent time and costs saved”.

CIBSE (the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) has launched a campaign offering organisations with large, publicly accessed buildings free guidance to help cut the cost of the new Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Display Energy Certificates (DECs) in return for a commitment to pledge 100 staff hours to energyreducing activities.

Galliford Try has been awarded a £3.8 million contract to build Europe’s largest IVF Centre of its kind at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

The Department of Health has launched a new national framework procurement, Express LIFT, to extend access to the LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) scheme to all Primary Care Trusts wishing to make use of it.

Applicants for Eastwood Park’s new Medical Technologies Foundation Degree, which “goes beyond” the level 3 NVQs previously available in servicing and decontamination of medical equipment, have only until the end of this month to get their application in if they wish to start the degree this October.

The NHS Confederation is to separate off its specialised facilities support company, the Healthcare Facilities Consortium (HFC) following an “extensive 18-month market review”.

Devereux Architects and Allies & Morrison have been appointed to design a new £41 million clinical research facility for King’s College London (KCL) at Denmark Hill, South East London.

Improved patient care and safety, higher patient and clinician satisfaction, enhanced “process efficiency”, savings in clinical time, and fewer patients delays, were among the benefits of Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital’s recent deployment at of a Vocera Communications hands-free voice communication system.

Hospedia, a new company which, subject to OFT approval, looks set to run over 80,000 NHS bedside systems UK-wide until now operated by Patientline UK and Premier Telesolutions, says up to 10 million hospital patients a year can expect “lower incoming call charges, better service and more reliable equipment”.

The Conservative Party says figures recently obtained by it under the Freedom of Information Act suggest the cleanliness of most NHS hospitals in England is “threatened by frequent invasions of rats, fleas, bedbugs, flies and cockroaches”.

The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management would like to congratulate the following, who had IHEEM grades awarded recently:

IHEEM branch secretaries and individual Institute members with interesting news on branch events, personal career triumphs and challenges, and any other stories of a general estates-related nature they feel would interest Health Estate Journal’s readers are being encouraged to submit text and photos to editor Jonathan Baillie for potential inclusion in HEJ’s Institute News pages.

Recruitment and membership manager Chris Parker is keen to hear from registered Engineering Technician IHEEM members who would be keen to serve on the Institute’s Membership Committee.

The Institute’s new president, Rob Smith, made his first visit to the IHEEM Headquarters in Portsmouth recently. The visit was an opportunity for him to meet the team at IHEEM and to discuss his vision and objectives for the future of the Institute.

UK health organisations and the Central Office of Information have been undertaking a review of healthcarebased standards and specifications (HBNs, HTMs etc), and the way such material is presented. IHEEM has been asked to contribute input to the working group heading up the task.

IHEEM would like to remind members to complete and return the paperbased questionnaire on membership issues and benefits circulated with August’s Health Estate Journal by no later than 30 September.

Kirsty Phelan (pictured) has joined IHEEM in a recently created post as the Institute’s administration officer.

Due to a recent retirement the Institute is looking for a member to join the Journal Committee. Ideally the member should be working in the health service at an NHS Trust.

IHEEM members’ views are being sought on whether the Engineering Council UK (ECUK) should support a statement by five Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) that calls for the European Commission, and in particular its powerful DG Competition directorate, to continue to respect the self-governing structure of “liberal professions” such as engineering, architecture and medicine.