The HSE’s recently revised technical guidance on minimising the risk of exposure to Legionella, ensuring compliance with medical device standards, and how the healthcare, public health, and social care sectors, can most effectively embrace sustainability.

Geoff Dillow, author of Dental Compressed Air and Vacuum Systems – 20031 a supplement to the NHS Estates publication Health Technical Memorandum 2022 Medical Gas Pipeline Systems,2 examines issues surrounding the use of scavenging systems for nitrous oxide during relative analgesia (RA) procedures in dentistry. This article provides practical advice to help reduce unnecessary exposure of staff.

Dr K. C. Lam of the Department of Building Services Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, explains how to create and implement a successful maintenance programme.

Hospital parking With the British public far more likely than they were 10 to 15 years ago to use a car even for a short journey, it seems inevitable that it will gradually become more and more difficult to find a hospital car park space. Jonathan Baillie discusses the key issues for health estate, facilities and transport managers dealing with car parking and traffic management on often congested, and increasingly

As some of the first healthcare PFI contracts near their end, Lisa Barnes, a Partner at construction and property consultancy, Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) UK, and a specialist advisor in PFI, discusses a number of key aspects of the ‘handback’ journey that Trusts’ Estates managers need to consider.

Healthcare facilities have complex and stringent design requirements. With specification of interior finishes key, the UK Sales manager at Construction Specialties UK considers some of the main design considerations and legislative requirements.

Matt Morse, a specialist in Legionella control and water treatment, discusses ‘competence’, with a particular focus on Legionella control, what the term signifies, how it can be measured, and why it is so important in a patient safety-critical field.

Given the ongoing need for healthcare providers to balance form with function when it comes to interior furnishings, surfaces are one such area where estate stakeholders can make efficiency gains, while also ensuring cleanability, antimicrobial protection, and durability, in line with rigorous standards. George Emms, Specification leader, UK & Ireland, at Wilsonart, sets out some of key considerations when specifying surfaces for the modern healthcare estate.

Dr Scott Brown, managing director and lead consultant for Health Tech Solutions, explores the benefits – including the opportunities for significant cost savings – of moving verification of specialist healthcare ventilation ‘in house’, along with the associated risks.

In March 2024 Smriti Singh – who has over 20 years’ experience providing strategic advice and delivering change and transformation programmes in the health and care sector, founded a strategic healthcare consultancy, Symbi Consulting – of which she is managing director. Here she, James Philipps, experienced architect and founder of architectural practice, Philipps & Co, and Neil Kukreja, a Medical Director and consultant surgeon, explore the key part clinical engagement can play in making new healthcare developments ‘more effective and more efficient’.

Karina Jones of Eta Projects, an IHEEM-registered Authorising Engineer (Water), takes a look at some of the health risks from growth and proliferation of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria – which she explains are ‘ubiquitous in the environment’ – and some of the key steps to lower them, and thus reduce the chances of infection.

Speaking in the opening IHEEM Digital Week webinar last month, Professor Cath Noakes FIMechE, FIHEEM, discussed some of the challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic for his team, and praised the ‘exceptional professionalism’ of the estates community.

Architect, Richard Mazuch, founder and champion of IBI TH!NK, the IBI Group’s ‘in-house’ research and development group, and an advocate of evidence-based design in ‘creating innovations that positively impact the psychology and physiology of patient groups’, examines the many positive therapeutic benefits – both physical and mental – of ensuring that modern healthcare buildings, and the patients being treated within them, get sufficient sunlight.

With the impact of human activity on the global climate very much in the news, September’s IHEEM 2019 Regional Conference & Exhibition in Cardiff saw speakers discuss climate change’s wide-ranging impact on the operation and use of healthcare facilities – from patient comfort, internal temperatures, and staff productivity, to plant operation and building condition, as well as the healthcare estate’s contribution to carbon footprint and global warming.

Dr Nick Hill, Authorising Engineer (Water) at Water Quality London, and chair of IHEEM’s Water Technical Platform, discusses the temperature performance of cold water systems in healthcare premises, based on a study of five buildings during a London heatwave, including the potential remedial actions which can be taken.

Speaking at an IHEEM seminar, Christina Bradley, Laboratory manager at the Hospital Infection Research Laboratory at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, discussed ensuring that the final rinse water used in washer-disinfectors is kept safe and, as far as possible, bacteria-free, to protect patients undergoing endoscopic procedures against infection.

Specialist NHS recruitment consultancy Fine Green Associates has been awarded Company Affiliate membership of IHEEM.

People generally have a strong preference for natural daylight over electric lighting in a room, but in healthcare buildings, in particular, adequate indoor lighting is essential for staff and patients to move about in safety and perform their day-to-day tasks, and in creating a pleasing ambience.

Plasterboard has become a choice construction material in the healthcare sector because it provides economical solutions for key requirements in modern hospitals, says Spencer Maynard, technical specification manager, Knauf Drywall.

Jan Strybol, regulatory affairs manager for Air Products Medical, explains the new CEN & ISO standard on Medical Gas Pipeline Systems (MGPS).