RECENT NEWS

IHEEM’s Healthcare Estates Conference and Exhibition (1-2 November) will be a must-attend event for professionals in estate planning, facilities management and healthcare engineering.

An alert document relating to mobile heated food trolleys has been issued by the DH Estates and Facilities Directorate. The trolleys are from various manufacturers/suppliers, and the problem concerns damage which may occur to the electrical power plug with consequential electric shock injury. There is risk of death by electrocution, it is stated.

Alan Mosedale IEng FIHEEM has been elected to the Board of the Engineering Council UK.

A range of fabrics for use in hospitals which incorporate the BioCote anti-microbial surface treatment protection is now available from Mosaic Furnishings. These fabrics include cotton cubicle and window curtains, duvet covers, counterpanes and general upholstery.

IHEEM’s key role to assist Foundation Trusts and other Trusts in the significantly changing NHS landscape was underlined at the Institute’s recently held Annual General Meeting in London by Peter Wearmouth, who was retiring as President, and Richard Nugent, his successor in this office.

IHS, which provides critical technical information and decision-support tools including an online service for construction professionals in the UK called The Construction Information Service, has announced that it has signed a sole partnership agreement with CIRIA, which provides performance improvement products and services for the UK construction industry.

Architectural practice, DKS Architects, which has moved into new purpose-built accommodation at Stokesley Business Park, has secured its third major scheme outside the region with healthcare developer Montpelier Estates.

IHEEM membership manager Tammy Simmons left the Institute in December.

The new Dumbledore Primary Care Centre in Handcross, West Sussex, under construction by specialist developer Cathedral Healthcare, has reached a major milestone en route to its scheduled completion in early 2007 with a topping-out ceremony held on the site.

In March 2007, the ETB will be working with the British Association for the Advancement of Science to expand the UK's National Science Week public engagement programme to become National Science and Engineering Week.

Eric Wright Construction has won a contract to build a new faculty for the school of dentistry at the University of Central Lancashire.

The Tees Valley office of White Young Green (WYG), consultants to the built, natural and social environment, has been appointed to provide mechanical and electrical design engineering services on a £9m healthcare project at Middleton St George Hospital in Darlington, County Durham.

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has reduced the cost of maintenance by installing Shire Systems' FrontLine Maintenance Management software.

Designed for aspiring directors and senior managers, the Development Centre Programme supports the national Facilities Management Workforce Strategy.

Sheffield architects Race Cottam Associates have designed a new care facility for the city.

The annual gala dinner of the Healthcare Estates Conference and Exhibition took place at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, on 6 November.

Patients in the West Midlands are to benefit from closer-to-home healthcare through the largest fleet of mobile medical units ever assembled in the UK.

Paul Robbins, electro-medical services manager, technical support services, Papworth Hospital NHS Trust, was, at the Healthcare Estates Conference in Harrogate, presented with the Northcroft Silver Medal for his Health Estate Journal article "Managing risk in device engineering".

After more than four years as chief executive, Tim Broyd has left CIRIA. The Board has now appointed Bill Healy to serve as new CIRIA's chief executive.

IHEEM has welcomed its new chief executive, John Long MBE, who succeeds Bill Pym.