RECENT NEWS

MTX Contracts Limited has contributed to the interior of Manchester’s new private Bridgewater Hospital, including areas associated with the operating theatres, IVF facilities and ancillary accommodation. The hospital provides diagnostic, therapeutic, interventional and endoscopic services to patients in the North West.

Digital tagging, or RFID (radio frequency identification), is improving patient safety and managing the location of high cost hospital equipment, according to an article in Health Informatics Now, the magazine from the British Computer Society (BCS) Health Informatics Community.

Property Tectonics has won a two-year framework contract with South Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust.

OCS Integrated Services Healthcare has won a five-year contract to supply a range of services to one the UK’s latest independently run NHS orthopaedic and joint replacement treatment centres at Runcorn in Cheshire, covering technical and engineering support, security, cleaning and laundry, portering and catering.

Export success and commitment to the State of Qatar’s healthcare sector is bringing further rewards to Static Systems Group, based in Staffordshire.

The 12 operating theatre suites at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford are now running at over 90% of available capacity, thanks to the accuracy of the data on its Oasis Patient Administration System (PAS).

Howorth Medical has recently been involved in building a mobile emergency surgical unit comprising a twin barn theatre, laboratories, recovery rooms and a TSSU, which can be transported to each destination in “flat pack” form, for assembly on site.

The University Hospital of Hartlepool is hoping to reduce waiting lists with the introduction of a brand new cardiac diagnostic service.

Bill Pym, IHEEM’s chief executive, is retiring, and a party, attended by many Institute past and present officers and members, was recently held for him – his departure from IHEEM is expected to be shortly after this year’s Healthcare Estates Conference and Exhibition at Harrogate in November.

The new HTM 01 on disinfection and sterilisation is being published and is the first update of the guidance for over 10 years.

IHEEM 2007 membership fees:

Cost allocation for FM services in hospitals, and the monitoring of quality of maintenance services, were examined in two papers prepared for the 19th Congress of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering.

With massive changes affecting the NHS landscape, IHEEM could either sink as other institutions encroach on its ground, or swim on a tide of expansion.

Currie & Brown, one of the UK’s leading specialist consultancies in the healthcare PFI sector, has reached financial close for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s £180 million Victoria and Stobhill Hospitals project.

The new HTM 01 on disinfection and sterilisation is being published and is the first update of the guidance for over 10 years.

Lancashire-based Progress Care Housing Association and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust have reached a milestone in their multimillion pound drive to improve accommodation for the Trust’s staff.

Electronic water control specialists ECO-Logic UK has just completed a project at Malcolm Arnold House, a 48-bed secure mental health facility at St Andrews Hospital in Northampton.

Marshall-Tufflex has been helping with the Africa Mercy Ship’s refit at Tyneside by providing the vessel with specific cable management solutions as pictured above.

A nationwide campaign entitled Food Watch is to discover patient and visitor views on hospital food.

In response to the announcement that the Department of Health is to create Local Involvement Networks (LINks) to replace PPI Forums, the chair of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH), Sharon Grant, has commented: “PPI Forums with their 5,000 members have achieved so much in a short timescale. Their impact has been felt throughout the entire NHS.