RECENT NEWS

North East and North Cumbria Provider Collaborative (NENC) has appointed Northumberland-headquartered Merit to design and fit out a new multi-million pound NHS Medicines Manufacturing Centre (MMC), hosted by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust at its Manufacturing & Innovation Hub in Seaton Delaval.

As part of the Group's GreenUp strategic plan, Veolia Water Technologies has opened a new Life Science Centre of Excellence near Dublin to ‘drive water treatment innovation, growth, and training in Europe and beyond for the pharmaceutical, science and healthcare markets’.

The investigative journalist who raised concerns about combustible cladding and high-rise buildings before the Grenfell Tower fire has warned the building services sector not to ignore new building safety regulations ‘despite growing frustration over project delays and rising costs’.

Fusion21 has announced the renewal of its national Workplace and Facilities Management Framework, worth up to £800 million over four years, and is inviting bids from interested suppliers providing regional or national coverage.

GEZE UK, a leading manufacturer of door and window control systems, has welcomed two new members to its management team – Allan Randall (pictured right) as National Specification manager, and Lewis Tandy (left) as Marketing manager.

The Department of Health and Social Care has launched what its dubs ‘a major crackdown on waste in the NHS to save millions of pounds a year’, with the publication of a new strategy – the Design for Life roadmap – designed to ‘radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the health service and reduce our reliance on foreign imports’.

Morrison Construction Building Central has hosted a topping out event for the Health Innovation Hub project in Glasgow.

A ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction for a new medical and dental centre for the British Army at Leuchars Station in Fife.

A new centre set to improve diagnostic care for local people has received its official opening with a ministerial stamp of approval.

The Institute for Neurological Sciences in Glasgow has performed what is reportedly the first operation in the UK – and only the third centre worldwide – to use Mixed Reality (MR) technology to allow the surgeon to ‘see inside’ a patient’s body during surgery.

Construction has commenced on an ‘energy-efficient’ Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) in Hereford, which will provide a calming and reassuring environment for diagnostic imaging and testing.

At Healthcare Estates 2024 in Manchester, Kemper was particularly keen to talk to visitors about its Hygiene System KHS, which uses ‘innovative valve technology and intelligent pipe routing’ to maintain continuous water flow and prevent stagnation, and the resulting impairment of drinking water quality, and its Multi-Therm product – ‘a solution for wireless, digital hot water circulation systems’. HEJ’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, met with General Manager, Matt Camm, to find out more about these products, and other recent technology developments at a business first established in Germany in 1864.

Today’s healthcare facilities have increasingly complex, and equally diverse, electrical power requirements, and indeed a reliable and continuous electrical supply is critical both to ensuring uninterrupted clinical activity, and to keeping plant and equipment running optimally. On Day Two of Healthcare Estates 2024 in Manchester, HEJ’s Editor, Jonathan Baillie, discussed the role that modern UPS systems play in such a scenario, the importance of properly installing and maintaining them, and how – when selecting such a system for maximum resilience and efficiency, there is no such thing as ‘one-size-fits all’ solution.

Extremely well-known for its expertise in medical gas systems, Beacon Medaes is increasingly keen to be recognised for its contribution to, and impact on, sustainability in healthcare. It is thus focusing on a range of initiatives to reduce its environmental footprint, ‘foster social responsibility, and ensure economic resilience’. HEJ Editor, Jonathan Baillie, met up at this year’s Healthcare Estates event in Manchester with Paul Owen, the company’s Sustainable Solution Sales Manager, to discover more, and to hear about an exciting new addition to the company’s clinical product range.

Recent months have seen all aspects of fire safety in healthcare buildings – with their especially vulnerable population, in the spotlight, while the Building Safety Act’s provisions have further strengthened the associated regulatory regime. At Healthcare Estates 2024, HEJ’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, met up with Maz Daoud, Head of Fire Safety at NHS England, to talk through some of the key current fire safety-related issues for he and his team, and for the personnel charged with minimising fire risk, and ensuring compliance with regulations and guidance, at healthcare facilities across the NHS. A key priority, he stressed, is ensuring that all relevant staff are adequately trained, both in the correct preventative procedures and practices, and in what to do should a fire occur.

North-west based Britplas, a leading commercial glazing specialist, has announced that the company’s owners have transferred their equity to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), ‘marking a momentous shift’ in the company’s ownership structure, and ‘a significant milestone in its journey towards sustainable growth and employee empowerment’.

The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH), designed by HKS, Cagni Williams, and Sonnemann Toon Architects, is complete, providing a new ‘state-of-the-art’ acute hospital for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

With Modern Methods of Construction enabling new buildings to be completed significantly faster than via traditional construction, ‘green’ credentials such as reduced waste and fewer site deliveries, and the ability to manufacture the modules offsite in controlled factory conditions – for optimal quality and less disruption at hospital sites, MMC is increasingly being used by NHS Trusts to augment ward, ICU, and surgical capacity at a variety of locations. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, interviewed David Hartley, MD of MTX – one of the UK’s leading exponents of healthcare MMC, at this year’s Healthcare Estates, discussing both some of MTX’s most notable recent MMC healthcare project successes, and why an increasing number of NHS clients now favour this form of construction

A new Surgical Elective Centre incorporating seven new operating theatres will be built at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford by Modern Methods of Construction specialist, MTX Contracts.

Delabie’s surgical scrub-up trough has been developed specifically for healthcare facilities. Available with a high or low upstand, the latter complies with the new Health Building Note 00-10: Part C – Sanitary Assemblies (formerly HTM 64).