Independent consultant Barry Trindall MSc asks if patient hotels could be the answer to reducing revenue costs and improving Trust accommodation standards.

Dr Tom Makin, a highly experienced microbiologist and former Directorate manager at the Department of Medical Microbiology at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, and Ken Tench, compliance manager, Estates and Facilities Directorate, at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Simon Pybus, a specialist registrar in medical microbiology and infectious diseases in Glasgow, George McCracken, head of Estates Risk and Environment at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, and Dr Michael Weinbren, Consultant Medical Microbiologist, and Specialist Advisor Microbiology, New Hospital Programme, discuss the key role of the construction supply chain and manufacturers in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

NHS Trusts across the UK are focusing on their challenging programme of capital investment in new hospitals, modernising existing facilities, and driving down emissions, as part of the 2040 NHS Net Zero Carbon deadline. James Large, Senior Acoustics consultant at international mechanical and electrical (M&E) and sustainability consultancy, CPW, argues that against this backdrop, more focus should be placed on good acoustic design during estates upgrades.

The fourth and final article in a series of four on the remit and responsibilities of IHEEM AEs working within four key disciplines looks at the role of the AE (Electrical).

In an article that first appeared in the IHEA’s Healthcare Facilities magazine, a look, by an Australian air filtration specialist, at some of the key considerations for the effective design of operating theatre ventilation systems.

The second in our series of articles on the work of IHEEM’s AE Registers and Authorising Engineers focuses on the vital part played by the AE (W) in keeping healthcare facilities’ water systems safe and compliant.

BOC Healthcare’s Authorised Person Medical Gas Pipeline System (MGPS) service supports healthcare facilities that may not be large enough to warrant their own qualified engineer on-site, such as community hospitals and hospices.

More NHS patients will be cared for at home and in their community to avoid them going into or staying in hospital unnecessarily, Prime Minister, Theresa May, has announced, as she pledged to cut ‘needless’ hospital admissions and help inpatients return home sooner – through community-based ‘rapid response teams’ and dedicated support for care home residents.

More NHS patients will be cared for at home and in their community to avoid them going into or staying in hospital unnecessarily, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, has announced, as she pledged to cut ‘needless’ hospital admissions and help inpatients return home sooner – through community-based ‘rapid response teams’, and dedicated support for care home residents.

A new endoscopy unit which, it is anticipated, will be one of the UK’s biggest and most advanced, is now taking shape at York Hospital. On its completion in May, it will enable the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to considerably increase the number of endoscopy procedures it delivers to accommodate significantly rising demand, while simultaneously improving the efficiency of the process and patient flow.

A plant room fire at the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre (BHOC), part of the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), early on 10 May, saw the evacuation of 53 patients to other wards in the BRI and the Bristol Heart Institute.

Matt Hancock (pictured), the MP for West Suffolk, has taken over as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from Jeremy Hunt, who has been appointed Foreign Secretary following a Cabinet re-shuffle by Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Specialist Alarm Services (SAS) has manufactured and supplied high quality alarm systems for over 35 years, with its systems widely used in the UK and across Europe in secure units and psychiatric facilities, hospitals, CAMHS units, medical centres, children’s homes, care and residential homes, and specialist schools – ‘basically anywhere where staff may feel vulnerable at their place of work’.

On 1 May last year the new Royal Papworth Hospital, a striking heart-shaped building located next to the city’s famous Addenbrooke’s Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, began accepting its first patients.

In early May this year the new Royal Papworth Hospital opened to patients on its new site on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. A look at the delivery and implementation of a 4K audio-visual system for the new healthcare facility’s state-of-the-art operating theatres.

A new report from the Committee on Climate Change (the CCC), 'Net Zero – The UK’s contribution to stopping global warming', published on 2 May, says the UK can end its contribution to global warming within 30 years ‘by setting an ambitious new target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050’

A report published on 25 May by the UK’s Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) concludes that the impact of ineffective decontamination of surgical instruments ‘can be far-reaching’, with the potential consequences ranging from the risk of severe infection, to ‘the frustration of cancelled operations due to dirty equipment’.

Inspiring and supporting the next generation of engineers ‘will help society solve the big technical and scientific challenges of today and tomorrow’, said Kevin Mitchell CEng, FCIBSE, the incoming President of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, in his Presidential Address on 5 May.

Former Chair of the Royal College of Surgeons, Dame Clare Marx, picked up the first spade-full of earth and dug in on 11 May as work began on a new multi-million-pound planned orthopaedic care centre named after her at Colchester Hospital.