The Maternity Unit at Copenhagen’s Hvidovre Hospital has recently reintroduced nitrous oxide to support women in labour pain, having ceased using it a decade ago due to concerns over potential health risks to staff. Denmark has since, however, developed new safety protocols for N2O use, and with the gas a highly effective analgesic, the hospital wanted to reintroduce it, but needed to address its substantial climate footprint. Jannik Jensen, Global Product manager at Medclair, and his colleague, R&D manager, Olesya Nikonova, explain how a Medclair central nitrous oxide destruction system met the brief.

NHS Property Services (NHSPS) recently opened a new Integrated Care Centre in Devizes in the heart of Wiltshire, which is now is now open to patients. Here, Andrew Strange, Regional Partnership director – Midlands, at NHSPS, gives us ‘a deep dive’ into how the project first started, the challenges faced, what the centre will be used for, and why sustainability is so important for the future of the NHS.

With the ever-changing landscape of requirements, regulations, and engineering practice within healthcare, Michael Ell, Medical Gas Portfolio manager, and Mark Williams, lead medical gas trainer, both of Eastwood Park Training, explain why practical training, building on theoretical knowledge, is key to gaining competency in the specialist field of medical gas pipeline systems.

Sarah Beaumont-Smith, CEO of Fulcrum Infrastructure Group, highlights the impressive way the primary care estate ‘flexed’ and demonstrated its adaptability during, and in the wake of, the COVID-19 pandemic. She believes that ‘what was done at great speed and out of necessity’ has ‘helped to change the mindset’ of how capacity in the primary care estate could be used over the longer term.

IDEXX’s Nigel Otter discusses Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust’s successful use of the company’s rapid microbiology systems to test for, and identify, Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, ‘in-house’, in its water systems.

At Healthcare Estates 2022, four scientists and academics discussed hospital ventilation – including some of the key learnings for hospital engineers in the wake of COVID-19. HEJ’s editor reports on an address by one of the four – Prof. Cath Noakes of the University of Leeds

A Net Zero and Sustainability keynote session at Healthcare Estates 2022 included an interesting and somewhat chastening look at the ‘size’ of the energy generation challenge facing the UK in the short-to-medium term by Dame Sue Ion, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering

Ian Ellis, a ‘smart buildings’ specialist at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, explains why recent years’ heatwaves in the UK point to a new challenge – simultaneously mitigating the effects of climate change while dealing with the root cause of carbon emissions.

Gavin Statham, Regional director, and Mike Robinson, BIM manager, BES, explain some of the many benefits, both to design and construction teams involved in healthcare projects, and the operators and users of healthcare buildings, of effective deployment of BIM technology

The Energy Trilemma – an affordable, sustainable, and secure power supply – is a pressing global issue. Powerstar looks at the funding that can help Trusts transition to clean energy, and the technology available to reduce costs, lower emissions, and ensure a secure supply.

Chris Brown, Public Sector lead at IES, discusses the need for NHS Trusts to be able to provide comprehensive data on current performance, and good evidence of the need for funding, to secure monies for heat decarbonisation schemes.

The New Hospital Programme’s Senior Responsible Owner, Natalie Forrest, updated Healthcare Estates 2023 delegates on progress with the Programme, and discussed the Hospital 2.0 model.

At Healthcare Estates 2023, experienced healthcare planner, Suzanne MacCormick, explained how getting the sensory aspects of healthcare facilities right plays a critical part in providing the optimal care environment and speeding recovery.

Paul Musgrove, Sales director at specialist in water consumption reduction, Ecoprod, looks at the fundamentals for hospitals and other healthcare facilities in establishing an effective water management strategy. He also discusses some of the latest products and technologies designed to simplify the process, reduce consumption, and cut costs.

Mark Hitchman, MD of Canon Medical Systems UK, discusses the creation of what is reportedly the UK’s first carbon-neutral built community sports and event arena with an integrated Medical Diagnostic Centre, and ‘why this unique fusion of sport and wellbeing will be a catalyst for positive regional health’.

Head of Estates Risk and Environment at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, George McCracken, Susanne Lee of public microbiology consultancy, Leegionella, Consultant Medical Microbiologist, Dr Michael Weinbren, former Public Health England microbiologist, Dr Jimmy Walker, Consultant Clinical Microbiologist at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Manjula Meda, and Consultant Medical Microbiologist at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Dr Teresa Inkster, discuss the role of derogations, and how guidance should be perceived and used to ensure healthcare facilities’ safe design, construction, and commissioning.

Many healthcare estates are ageing, and in some cases lagging behind those in other sectors on sustainability. Does support go far enough for these estates to upgrade and adopt low carbon energy solutions considering the UK’s ambitious 2050 carbon targets?

Thomas Cosker, associate at engineering consultancy, Buro Happold, shares insights on designing the London Institute of Medical Sciences’ new laboratory. The consultancy delivered MEP and lab design services, as well as sustainability, civil, structural, acoustic, vibration and fire engineering, to create ‘world-class technical facilities’ that now house over 40 different scientific research group

At a Westminster Health Forum policy conference held online on 21 February, Dr Hayley Pinto, Education and Training lead at The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, discussed some of the biggest challenges facing the NHS from her standpoint as the service and its staff strive to meet demanding Net Zero targets. Worryingly, she said, recent surveys showed that less than half the UK population understand the term ‘Net Zero’, and just a quarter the terms ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’. She warned that ‘we could consider our collective failure to tackle climate change as a safeguarding issue for an entire generation’.

Horne Engineering reports on the positive reception given to its In-Line Thermal Disinfection Unit by the head of Healthcare Compliance at Skanska, who had been looking for an effective means of combating the persistent challenge of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in hospital water settings. The thermostatic controls specialist says he is now an enthusiastic champion of the technology.