Asbestos management firm Clifford Devlin has published “a simple A5 guide” to managing asbestos in the workplace, which outlines who is responsible for managing the substance in non-domestic premises and what those responsibilities are.

IHEEM is appealing for volunteers to fulfil a number of important roles, including mentoring less experienced colleagues to assist in their professional development. Chris Parker, the Institute’s recruitment/membership manager, explains.

A further category of membership – University Affiliate – is being launched by the Institute, aimed at the engineering departments of universities, primarily to provide a link between academia and industry.

Vernacare has appointed a UK manufacturing team to produce its new porter’s chair, created as part of the Department of Health and NHS PASA’s “Design Bugs Out” challenge (HEJ – June 2009).

A new core formulation from Knauf Drywall is claimed to make a specialist plasterboard “a real alternative” to lead-based radiation shielding for X-ray facilities.

The effects of humidification on hospital superbugs are being explored by some of the UK’s top academics, in what Dave Mortimer, national sales manager for Vapac Humidity Control, explains are the UK’s first such studies.

Architects for Health (AfH) is inviting architectural students to submit projects for consideration for the third annual Student Design Award for 2009 (see also HEJ – October 2008).

Architects for Health (AfH) is inviting architectural students to submit projects for consideration for the third annual Student Design Award for 2009 (see also HEJ – October 2008).

An online advertising service designed to “hook up” NHS providers with healthcare suppliers has been announced by Health Minister Ben Bradshaw.

The requirement for safety testing of clinical laboratory medical equipment is regarded as essential to ensure that apparatus does not pose a user or patient hazard. John Backes, sales and product manager, Rigel Medical, considers the implications of the new IEC standard for the in-service and post-repair testing of electromedical devices.

An article examining the guidance set out on pathology laboratory gas systems in a new Department of Health healthcare technical memorandum, HTM08-06, won MGPS services consultant and the HTM’s main author, Geoff Dillow, IHEEM’s 2007 Northcroft Silver Medal.

Kent’s Medway NHS Foundation Trust has recently signed up to the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers’ (CIBSE’s) 2008 “100 Hours of Carbon Clean Up” campaign, encouraged to participate for the third year running by its environmental team’s winning of a top award in 2007. Health Estate Journal editor Jonathan Baillie visited the Trust’s sizeable main hospital, Gillingham’s Medway Maritime, where two of the team described this year’s ambitious energy-saving plans.

Ensuring business continuity in the face of an emergency is arguably more important in a healthcare facility, where lives depend on, for example, vital medical equipment continuing to function at all times, than in any other environment. IHEEM business development manager Louise Corfield examines the importance of effective resilience and emergency planning for the healthcare estate and highlights the key priorities.

Hagbard Eriksen, managing director at Danish Clean Water (DCW), explores the threat presented by Legionella and Pseudomonas in hospital water systems, and proposes a cost-effective disinfection system that DCW says ‘achieves outstanding and sustained results without the use of toxic chemicals’.

Tim Sibbald, Water Regulations team leader at Northumbrian Water, looks at what happens during a Water Regulations inspection of hospitals and other healthcare premises.

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.

Authorising Engineers (AEs) have a key role to play in ensuring the safe, efficient management and operation of key plant, equipment, and systems in a range of engineering disciplines in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, in accordance with key HTM and other guidance, and legislation.

HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports on the first half of an IHEEM ‘Diversity and Equality’ roundtable held in early November at the London offices of Eta Projects, at which participants discussed topics including encouraging more people from diverse genders and black and ethnic minorities into the sector, ‘alternative routes’ into healthcare engineering, and some of the workplace experiences – good and bad – of female engineers in a still largely male-dominated sector. February’s HEJ will report on the discussion’s second half.

Nick Hill, FIHEEM, of independent consultancy, Water Quality London, a former chair of IHEEM’s Water Technical Platform who sits on the Institute’s Authorising Engineer (Water) Registration Board, describes the microorganisms which inhabit the drains serving washbasins in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and considers some of the alternative approaches to managing the risks they present.

Colin Dobbyne MIET, an experienced product designer, and the founder of Big Blue Solutions, says he is ‘passionate about empowering clinicians to make better decisions by connecting operating theatres to create a constant feedback loop for research and development’.