RECENT NEWS

Managed service and maintenance provider, Althea, has completed a £4 m refurbishment and replacement project at Whittington Health NHS Trust’s Imaging Department on the third floor of the Whittington Hospital in north London.

BSI has launched a certification scheme and supporting training courses designed to help organisations develop, implement, and maintain, effective facilities management across all operations.

Following the success of an initial contract, a medical technology specialist is set to continue to help an NHS hospital Trust deliver orthopaedic procedures during a refurbishment project.

A new survey released today by NHS Providers has found that 82% (161) of NHS Trust leaders think the current climate of restricted capital funding ‘poses a medium or high risk to patient safety’, and could undermine plans to transform the NHS.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham say they have created an antimicrobial coating for steel surfaces which has proven in a trial to rapidly kill bacteria that cause some of the most common hospital-acquired infections.

Developed by University of Birmingham researchers, patented by University of Birmingham Enterprise, and to be commercialised by a new company, NitroPep, the coating – also called NitroPep – has been heralded as a new tool in the fight against the spread of infection.

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has – as it puts it – ‘smashed targets’, saving £242,681 in 19 months, and triumphing in the Reuse category of the NHS Sustainability Awards, with the help of the Warp It system that helps staff to reuse and recycle.

Unwanted items have been donated to other Trust departments, and assets worth almost £5,000 claimed from other organisations on the network. These include ‘high-end’ sofas ‘smart enough to include in a new-build project’.

Contrac Lighting, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of lighting solutions for the industrial, retail, public, and commercial sectors, has announced the appointment of Richard Hunt as managing director.

Medical Air Technology (MAT) proved to be ‘the ideal construction partner’ for the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) when it needed a new purpose-built suite of microbiology containment laboratories for Dr Serge Mostowy, Professor of Cellular Microbiology, to continue his exciting and innovative research into controlling infection,

“MAT is large enough to cope with any issues, but small enough to care, and this was evident throughout,” said John Starmer, Estates director at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “It was a pleasure to work with MAT and the team that was assembled for the project, and we hope to have the opportunity to work together again.”

A new ‘National Artificial Intelligence’ Lab will bring together the industry’s best academics, specialists, and technology companies ‘to work on some of the biggest challenges in health and care’, including earlier cancer detection, new dementia treatments and more personalised care, the Department of Health and Social Care has announced.

An innovative partnership with Engage to Change – a scheme in Wales which helps those aged 16-25 with learning disabilities and / or autism develop their work skills through paid work placements – is ‘helping to change the lives’ of such young people in North Wales, with the support of the NHS.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has confirmed a new £1.8 billion NHS ‘cash injection’ to help improve patient care.

More beds, new ‘cutting-edge equipment’, and additional wards, will be delivered at 20 hospitals across the country, the Prime Minister announced as he visited a Lincolnshire hospital today (5 August), with the 20 healthcare facilities set to share £850 million in new funding ‘to upgrade outdated facilities and equipment’.

The Door & Hardware Federation (DHF) has welcomed the Ministerial Statement to the House, given by the then Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, in which he updated members on building safety.

The new government team led by Boris Johnson has ‘an unprecedented opportunity to dramatically shift policy on the built environment and deliver higher standards of safety, sustainability and social justice’, the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) claims.

A woman who has worked in operating theatres for over 30 years has launched a petition to protect thousands of healthcare workers exposed to what she says is ‘a toxic smoke plume’ produced during surgery, and is being backed by the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP), the UK’s leading membership organisation for perioperative practitioners.

Medical Architecture has secured planning consent for a new Fracture Clinic at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, which will enable the hospital’s orthopaedic department to expand the range of services provided locally.

John Norfolk has taken over as President of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) for 2019/20 from Tim Hopkinson of E Poppleton & Son, who served for two years.

The Government should spend £8 billion immediately ‘to restore the quality of and access to adult social care in England to acceptable levels’, and then introduce free personal care, funded through general taxation, over a five-year period, says a House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report, 'Social care funding: time to end a national scandal', published on 4 July.

The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (RD&E) is reportedly set to reduce its annual energy costs by £800,000 a year, following a £7 million investment in sustainable energy measures.

The project, delivered by Centrica Business Solutions, will see new energy technology installed at five sites across Exeter, helping the Trust cut its energy costs by 17 per cent. Design and construction, set for completion by late April 2020, includes the installation of a 1.5 MW CHP unit at Wonford Hospital, and roof-mounted solar panels at Wonford and Heavitree Hospitals and the Mardon Neuro-Rehabilitation Centre.

Ideal Standard International, the bathroom solutions manufacturer, has seen its new £1 million Clerkenwell showroom opened with ‘a day dedicated to insight and design inspiration’.

Following the second anniversary of Grenfell Tower fire in West London in which 72 people died and 70 were injured, The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) has published a revised and updated version of its 'Guide E: Fire Safety Engineering'.