Amanda Parkin, marketing manager at approved design and build consultant to the NHS for integrated theatres and digital video communications, OR Networks, explains how, with the help of the company and its specialist equipment, Northumbrian surgeons successfully established a two-way audio/video link to their counterparts at a hospital in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro to enable them to train the Tanzanian surgeons in laparoscopic surgery.

In an article based on the “Best Paper” at the Institute of Hospital Engineering Australia’s (IHEA) 61st National Conference 2010, Dr Liz Haywood, PhD, MIHEA, Chris Frankel, and Andrew Johns, BTech, MIHEA – BMS group, Bendigo Health Building and Infrastructure Division, examine the group’s part in a project involving the design, build, installation, and commissioning, of two new negative pressure suites at Bendigo Health in Victoria.

Musa Kızılay, a project principal for Turkey at global management, engineering, and development consultancy, Mott MacDonald, explains how it is ‘helping to transform’ the country’s health system.

A fully functioning and compliant critical air system is crucial to the successful operation of the complex hospital environment, where downtime can be catastrophic for patients and business.

Medical Air Technology (MAT) recently completed a high specification Containment Level 3 (CL3) facility for a leading UK university that wanted to expand its research capability. The new laboratory, situated on the top floor of the ten-storey faculty building, was partially funded by charitable donations and is part of a major ongoing refurbishment programme.

With the NHS facing pressure to cut costs and improve efficiency, the head of Healthcare Business Development at Centrica Business Solutions examines ‘how innovative energy systems could drive change and make a lasting difference’.

“Containment laboratories must be designed and built so as to prevent or control the exposure of laboratory workers, other persons and the environment to the biological agent in use.” Medical Research Council: Standards for Containment Level 3 Facilities

Drinking water must always be protected from mixing with non potable water, and, depending on the level of risk, fluids are divided into categories 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest protection category.

Government, industry, system operators, and the engineering profession, must act together in a coordinated way to improve cyber safety and ensure that the Internet of Things develops in a secure and trusted way, say two new reports published by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) and the PETRAS Internet of Things research hub.

The reports, respectively Cyber safety and resilience: strengthening the digital systems that support the modern economy, and Internet of Things: realising the potential of a trusted smart world, together cover the Internet of Things and other digitally connected systems such as industrial control systems and building management systems.

When it comes to the design and installation of a new ultraclean (UCV) operating theatre, the benefits of using a specialist contractor are wide ranging.

The high level of demand on the service and 'a combination of other pressures' led to an overspend in the NHS provider sector in 2017-18, with the sector as a whole having a deficit of £960 million at the end of 2017-18.

NHS Improvement, which released the data in its report, Quarterly performance of the NHS provider sector: quarter 4 2017/18, said this was ‘£464 m above what was anticipated by trusts at the start of the year and £30 m above what the sector anticipated at the end of December’. More than two thirds of providers (156 out of 234 Trusts), however, finished the year ‘at or better than planned financially’, while the provider sector deficit for the past financial year was £1.5 billion down on the 2015-16 figure of £2.45 billion.

Eryl Jones, of the Assa Abloy Door Hardware Group, discusses the key issues that decision-makers and facilities managers need to be aware of when it comes to inclusive design for healthcare buildings, the critical considerations for

Steve Charlton, Technical manager at Barkell Air Handling Units, considers the impact of air pollution on indoor healthcare environments, and particularly primary and secondary healthcare settings.

Benji Bagwell, lead Engineering manager at Ultrafabrics, explains how upholstery can be soft, colourful, and robust enough to stand up to rigorous new cleaning regimes.

Karl Jones, the managing director and founder of Digicon, a Danfoss distributor, explains how the two companies worked together to deliver HVAC drives for temporary COVID-19 hospitals which needed to be up and running extremely fast.

Shaun Tuffin, Construction director at LST Projects, discusses the challenges of constructing a new £7.3 million cancer care ward above a live hospital building in Southampton within just six months.

A dedicated team in a ‘hidden hub’ in central Scotland hub is on track to build and ship 30 fully-equipped operating rooms in 2021 alone, all destined for hospitals throughout Africa.

Alex Best, explains how with the recent purchase of two 2G Energy CHP units which could switch to running on hydrogen in the future, the Trust is aiming to play its part in the NHS reaching its zero carbon emission targets.

Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) has launched ‘Frameworks Scotland 3’, for delivery of new-build, refurbishment, and backlog maintenance projects across NHS Scotland.

Kalpesh Shah, head of Sales – ProcessWater, at VeoliaWater Technologies UK (VWT UK), looks at the guidance within the HTMs, and provides an overview of the crucial practical issues to consider when it comes to implementation on site.