With the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa widely considered the worst to date, and British nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, who was diagnosed with the virus in December after returning from work in Sierra Leone, currently being cared for in a special isolation unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital, Jon Otter, scientific director of the Healthcare Division at Bioquell, considers prevention and control strategy for a disease which, by early January this year, had killed well over 8,000 people since the original outbreak just a year before.

Creating a good physical environment for patients is a challenge for the NHS, with its wide variety of building styles and ages. However, even small changes can have a positive effect for both patients and staff.

Neil Ashdown, general manager of the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS), considers the key steps for ensuring that fire doors are correctly specified, installed, maintained, inspected, and, when necessary, repaired, to enable them to effectively fulfil their role.

David Green, AIA, principal at the London offices of Perkins+Will, and Basak Alkan, AICP, LEED AP / healthcare district planner, at the architect, interior, and urban design company’s Atlanta, US base, examine growing moves in the US to re-evaluate planning policies to ensure that local environments are built that promote healthy activities, with the creation of so-called ‘Health Districts’.

As NHS waiting lists in England top three million1, the highest figure since waiting list ‘targets’ were created, estates teams have a key role to play in ensuring that infrastructure is best placed to meet demand. Working across Europe, operator of mobile healthcare facilities, Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, claims to have ‘a unique insight’ into the variety of estates policies and solutions being adopted by our European neighbours. Here Rob van Liefland, European representative, takes a look at the situation in Belgium and the Netherlands, and considers how the UK compares.

Phillip Herring, managing director at VINCI Park UK – a parking operator which develops and manages integrated parking solutions across a wide range of sectors – examines some of the key issues facing those working within healthcare estates and facilities teams responsible for parking policy and operations in their hospital or other healthcare facility, and discusses how the company has deployed its expertise to ‘ease some of the pressures’.

The NHS has invited expressions of interest from hospitals across England interested in developing new ways of delivering and improving their local acute services.

The aim is ‘to enhance the viability of local hospitals through new formal shared working arrangements between clinical specialists at different hospitals, and to improve efficiency by sharing back office administration and management between different sites’.

Jon Fletcher, operations director at Interfurn UK, which designs and manufactures ultraclean hospital ventilation (HVAC) systems and healthcare and laboratory furniture, discusses the company’s approach to designing ultraclean ventilation (UCV) canopies – which it says offer greater protection against infection and improved cleanliness for patients and staff than more ‘traditionally designed’ systems, alongside enhanced performance, greater energy efficiency, easier installation, and a more ‘future-proof design’.

A global specialist in door opening solutions considers some of the key security issues within healthcare facilities, and how access control and mechanical technologies are tackling them.

With the NHS aiming to reduce its 2007 carbon footprint by 10% by 2015, Chris Horsley, managing director of Babcock Wanson UK, a provider of industrial boilers and burners, thermal oxidisers, air treatment, water treatment, and associated services, looks at how one NHS Trust has approached the challenge, and considerably reduced its carbon emissions, by refurbishing its boiler house and moving from oil to gas-fired steam generation.

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has announced that, as part of the new ‘healthcare landscape’, NHS Property Services (PropCo), which will be owned by the Department of Health (DH), will take ownership of existing primary care trust (PCT) estate not transferred to community care providers.

The NHS has one of the world’s largest and most varied estates, which at any time accommodates many of the most dependent people in society. With around 6,000 fires occurring in NHS premises each year, its duty of care – and that of other healthcare providers – demands very close attention to fire safety.

Reducing the energy consumed by UK healthcare buildings and facilities, and some of the more innovative and imaginative ways that healthcare estates teams can reduce their estates’ carbon footprint, will be a key focus at this year’s Healthcare Estates show.

A huge amount of interest is now centred on making further improvements to the energy efficiency of healthcare facilities – reduction of carbon footprints is to the fore. However, there is nothing new in ensuring the best is obtained from healthcare power systems – the Health Estate Journal ‘Then and now’ feature below shows the specific focus on generating plant six decades ago. The feature offers advice on maximising returns from power systems and was originally published in the October 1948 edition of The Hospital Engineer – the journal of the Institution of Hospital Engineers (now IHEEM).

As administrative, regulatory and economic demands within the healthcare sector continue to grow, the onus is on facilities managers to adopt effective waste management strategies. This can seem like a daunting and complex task but the safe and cost-effective handling of the waste on a healthcare site is an environmental and economic imperative, writes Clare Noble, managing director, PHS Wastemanagement.

Roy Minett, commercial marketing manager for shower and washroom specialist Kohler Mira highlights how sensible precautions and best practice can offset legionella-related problems in healthcare establishments.

Phil Wade, sales and marketing director of Static Systems Group, takes a look at modular off-site construction from a building services’ perspective.

Patient choice is set to have a major impact on the future estates’ strategy of acute hospitals in the UK, says Chris Parsons, senior consultant with property consultancy EC Harris LLP.

The current NHS reforms will mean that patients will be offered the choice of which acute hospitals they attend for follow up treatment and/or procedures.

As the enforcement date of the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order (RRFSO) draws closer, major changes in fire safety law will mean that the sole responsibility for ensuring fire hazards do not put lives at risk will now rest with the designated “responsible person” for each location. Report by fire safety consultancy firm Fireco.

A new range of “Little Giants” has been specifically designed and developed by Miele for use in laundries that may lack the space or sufficient quantities of laundry to require large commercial machines. The 5.5 kg or 6.5 kg load capacity in the Little Giants, together with a host of innovative features, create more options for the user and make these machines the ideal choice for many small healthcare establishments such as residential or nursing homes, and hospitals.