The importance of suppliers of medical equipment and modular-constructed operating theatre environments working ever more closely with clinicians on technological advances is stressed by Bill Al-Khatib, managing director of Maquet UK. Nicholas Marshall reports.

Medical modular construction specialist Cadolto is designing and providing, to tight deadlines, a series of 14 hi-tech hospitals for the Russian Federation as part of a major modernisation of the Russian healthcare system. The company’s managing director Gerhard Flohr discusses the challenge of fulfilling what is believed to be the world’s biggest ever modular building order.

The findings of a consultation into proposed changes to the professional recognition and qualifications afforded to UK engineers, including the replacement of the current title of Incorporated Engineer, will be reported to IHEEM members “as soon as they are available”.

Pointers to improving waste management are provided by Greg Roberts, senior environmental consultant, Hyder Consulting.

Recent amendments to waste legislation and technical guidance have resulted in a number of changes that dictate how the NHS must manage its waste.

Traditionally, some organisations have seen the attendance of an employee on a recognised training course, or the passing of an external exam, as sufficient evidence of competence.

Researchers in Bradford will be investigating the effects of humidity on hospital superbugs, such as E. coli, using one of the largest known biological test chambers in the world.

IHEEM says that, given recent announcements by the Prime Minister on the heightened importance of protecting public areas, plus the recent flooding in some parts of the country and the fire at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, there has never been a more important time to ensure the resilience of healthcare estates.

Reception staff working late into the evening at a Harley Street private medical practice now have extra protection against threatening situations via a special user ID card linked by mobile telephony to a central call centre which will monitor their safety on receipt of an alert and, if necessary, send police or security staff to help them.

The Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme has delivered ‘a significant range of health and regeneration benefits for some of the most disadvantaged parts of England’, an independent report by AMION Consulting published last month examining the programme’s social and economic impact over the past decade, maintains.

Micad says its Annual User event, being held on 11 September, will be the biggest staged by the company so far, with over 150 delegates expected.

IHEEM was pleased to host the IFHE President, Ole Rist, and the organisation’s General Secretary, Gunnar Baekken, at a recent meeting of the International Technical Platform held at Arup’s offices in London, which followed a meeting of the Institute’s Council.

The organisers of the 2014 (23rd) IFHE Congress, being held in October next year in Buenos Aires, have revealed more details on the planned conference topics under the overall event theme of ‘The planning and design of buildings for health’.

An event last month at London’s Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) saw 19 more professional engineering institutions, including IHEEM, sign up to the Engineering Diversity Concordat, ‘committing to address the gender, ethnicity, and disability gap, affecting the profession’.

Biofilm is a collection of microorganisms that adheres to surfaces, and secretes a protective and adhesive matrix, in water systems. 99.5% of bacteria in water systems are found in the biofilm, which provides the ideal environment and nutritional conditions for proliferation.

A looming energy crisis will hit the UK within the next five years, energy regulator Ofgem has warned on a number of occasions already this year, and public sector organisations, commercial businesses, and households, can all expect a series of price hikes as demand outstrips local resources.

Rada, the ‘pioneers in mechanical and cutting edge digital washroom technology’, is supplying its washroom controls to Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

While Engineering Technicians play a key role in the development and implementation of new engineering technologies, and in the design and construction of high quality, safe, and environmentally compliant buildings, the Engineering Council says under one per cent of all such UK professional personnel are currently registered at EngTech level.

At its meeting in late October, IHEEM’s Council agreed to the launch of a number of new membership categories, beginning with the Skilled Person Affiliate (HEJ – October 2013).

Bender UK says it ‘scored a huge hit’ at the Healthcare Estates 2013 conference and exhibition, with delegates and visitors crowding onto its stand to learn more about ATICS - the power changeover solution designed to the Safety Integrity Level (SIL) Level 2 standard (BS EN61508).

The IHEEM enewsletter has just passed its first anniversary and, the Institute’s recruitment and membership manager, Chris Parker says, ‘has quickly been recognised as a primary source of up-to-date information on all that goes on within IHEEM’.