IHEEM London branch chairman John Crawford retired from full-time employment recently after 49 years, almost to the day, as an electrical engineer, having worked for organisations ranging from a sizeable London regional health authority to London Regional Transport.

The Medical Air Technology (MAT) Lay Up Cabinet is said to be ideal for operating theatres requiring additional capacity for instrument lay-up to help increase throughput. Re-circulating air from the room, the self-contained cabinet uses 99.997% HEPA filtration to provide an ultraclean air zone across the trolley’s face, using a downward angled air pattern.

Aiming to provide a safe, secure, and therapeutic 21st Century care environment that will enable many patients to recover from serious mental illness and eventually return to the community, but in significantly less institutional and cramped surroundings, is the goal of a major £67 million rebuild project currently ongoing at the State Hospital in Lanarkshire.

MyPath, a new online recording system developed by a partnership of Institutions in a project led by Engineering UK (and now overseen by the Engineering Council), will enable members to log on via a link on the IHEEM website and record progress with their Continuing Professional Development, the lessons learned, and the benefits gained.

IHEEM’s Council is seeking to fill two interim vacancies, and is keen to receive applications from Institute members in the East Anglia and South West Branch areas who wish to be considered, in accordance with its Articles of Association. The IHEEM governing Council holds the Institute in “trust” for current and future beneficiaries, and has responsibility for managing its business.

British asbestos campaigners have launched a national survey exploring general awareness and understanding of asbestos in buildings, and the regulations designed to protect UK workers from exposure to it.

The CARITAS Project, founded by US “architect and visionary” Wayne Ruga as a global enterprise “committed to creating transformational environments that enhance human health”, is calling for entries for its Generative Space Award.

To combat chemical-resistant bacteria, viruses, fungi, and spores which can cause hospital infection, Proventec Healthcare now offers OxyPharm, a new “area bio-disinfection solution” claimed to be “fast-acting, highly mobile, and low cost”, and “effective against all potentially harmful micro-organisms”, organically breaking them down to water and oxygen molecules, “without risk to humans”.

A healthcare centre under development as part of the £13 million regeneration of Loudoun Square in Butetown, Cardiff, is Wales’ first healthcare project to attain a BREEAM “Excellent” rating.

The introduction of microfibre cleaning at London’s Heart Hospital, part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has seen the 100-bed hospital install Electrolux washing and drying machines in a new 29 m2 laundry, previously a laundry store and part of the mail and porters’ lodge.

Sixty-five years ago this month, as the Allied Forces celebrated Japan’s unconditional surrender, the first ever edition of “The Hospital Engineer Newsletter”, the forerunner to Health Estate Journal, was published.

The Engineering Council says a recent survey of registered engineers “provides sound evidence” that those holding the professional engineering qualifications Chartered Engineer (CEng), Incorporated Engineer (IEng), or Engineering Technician (EngTech), are likely to have held on to their jobs during the recession.

London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, renowned worldwide for the quality of its treatment for children and young people has, the NHS Trust which operates it acknowledges, “been battling for some time with buildings nearing the end of their useful life and in need of replacement”.

A former head of estates and capital projects at Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, who fraudulently earned £245,246 over a five-year period by making false claims about his credentials, has been sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for a year, and to 200 hours of unpaid community work for fraud, following an NHS Counter Fraud Service investigation.

IHEEM is pleased to announce that it has increased its presence in the virtual world. Membership officer Charlotte Fletcher said: “Members can now join our group on LinkedIn, become a fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Bender UK, the manufacturer of isolated power system and surgeon’s panels, will show a new TCP/IP product in Harrogate, to complement its existing FTC470XET module, that allows Bender IPS systems to be interrogated remotely.

In one of the architectural practice’s largest ever contracts of its kind, Nightingale Associates is playing a major part in a £335 million local health reconfiguration project (the Greater Peterborough Health Investment Plan) which should see primary and acute care provision transformed in Peterborough and its surrounds.

Three Iranian academics examine how existing experience in inpatient and other ward design can be harnessed to ensure the creation of comfortable, relaxing and, as far as is possible, individually “tailored” hospital accommodation in the future.

Despite the current difficult economic conditions making it even more of a challenge for estates personnel to deliver the ever higher standards expected by patients, clinicians, and the Department of Health, the profession has much to aspire and look forward to, and numerous successes to celebrate.

Cardiff construction company Morgan Ashurst is building a new £3.2 million extension at Velindre Hospital which will include ‘bunkers’ to house new radiotherapy machines.