A new pathology laboratory building at Leeds’s St James’s University Hospital that will serve patients across West Yorkshire was officially opened in September 2023. The highly automated facility will serve hospitals across the region, avoiding considerable duplication, and significantly speeding diagnosis and treatment for many thousands of patients annually. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, visited the new Centre for Laboratory Medicine to find out more.

Frank Butterworth, Technical director at water hygiene, treatment, and equipment specialist, Goodwater, discusses the various strategies that have been used over the years to combat the growth and proliferation of Legionella in healthcare water systems. He particularly focuses on the advantages, in combating the bacterium, of monochloramine as a secondary disinfectant in buildings’ water systems, compared with using other chlorine-based disinfectants.

Dr Khairul Azmy Kamaluddin, Ts Noor Muhammad Abd Rahman, and Dr Muhammad Syukri Imran Abdullah, discuss the advancement of sustainability programmes by the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) to reduce carbon emissions within the country’s public healthcare sector.

David Pownall, Vice-President of Services at Schneider Electric UK & Ireland, explains how digitisation of power management, and deployment of ‘intelligent’ building management systems in healthcare facilities, can bring considerable benefits for healthcare Estates and Facilities managers – not only supporting their drive towards Net Zero, and cutting cost and emissions, but also helping them get the optimal performance, efficiency, and reliability, from their equipment.

A gala dinner on 10 October at Manchester’s Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, attended by some 630 guests, saw the presentation of 12 Healthcare Estates IHEEM Awards celebrating excellence and innovation, and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tomas Jucas, a principal electrical engineer within the National Healthcare Team at Mott MacDonald, presents what he dubs an ‘open review of the proposition that Battery Energy Storage Systems could be considered a green alternative to carbon-emitting standby diesel generators located at healthcare sites’.

Duane Passman, FIHEEM, Co-Chair of IHEEM’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, reports on the Group’s work since it was formed six years ago.

Speaking at a well-attended IHEEM 2023 Authorising Engineers Conference at Epsom Downs Racecourse in July, representatives from IHEEM’s Technical Platforms updated delegates on some of their Platform’s key activities in recent months, and looked ahead to some of the exciting initiatives and work they have planned. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Anil Madan, Non-Residential Marketing manager at Ideal Standard UK and Armitage Shanks, looks at some of the advantages of pressure-balancing valves (PBVs) in healthcare water systems. He says PBVs can offer ‘a simpler, more cost-effective, and lower maintenance alternative’ to the ‘traditional’ TMV for suitably risk-assessed environments such as non-critical care settings.

Paul Chivers of PCC Sustainable Solutions – an independent SME and Programme / Project manager for innovation and sustainability across PPE, medical devices, and facilities, discusses recent work to examine, and then verify, the effectiveness of novel ways to reprocess reuseable anaesthetic masks, other PPE, and medical devices, using technologies such as UVC, in the process considerably reducing energy and water consumption across the NHS.

Alan Wilson, managing director of ModuleCo Healthcare (MCH), a provider of modular healthcare buildings in the UK, explains how – with budgets especially tight – modular construction, utilising a usage-based revenue agreement solution, enables NHS Trusts to ‘access state-of-the-art healthcare facilities without the huge capital investments typically required’.

Dr Nick Starkey, Director of Policy at the Royal Academy of Engineering, discussed some of the ways the engineering community is looking to play its part in the UK’s drive to meet demanding Net Zero Carbon targets.

Karen Davenport, Frameworks director for BAM Construct UK, looks at how healthcare estates are set to continue a trend of evolution in expectations and delivery of new facilities.

Speaking following the day’s first presentation, by the IHEEM President , IHEEM AE (Water), and renowned water safety system expert, David Harper, discussed some of his experience ‘at the sharp end’.

The director of Global Operations at Kids Operating Room describes the charity’s work to try to ‘close the gap’ in children’s healthcare globally, but especially in low and middleincome countries.

Speaking in the opening keynote at last month’s ‘hybrid’ Healthcare Estates conference, Emma-Jane Houghton, England’s New Hospital Programme, gave a presentation entitled ‘An introduction to the New Hospital Programme’s Commercial Philosophy’.

Managing director at Bender UK, Gareth Brunton, examines the advances in integrated theatre technology that are ‘led by the need for seamless communication and sharing of data and images’.

‘Do we know which hospital to build and why we’re doing it’ was a presentation by Stephen Wright, an independent consultant and Honorary Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, at October’s Healthcare Estates conference.

Graeme Tucker, a director at Power Control, takes a look at recent developments in UPS technology, and the potential benefits to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

For hospitals and other healthcare facilities, which often operate continuously, access to a reliable power system is mission-critical. Facilities that are unprepared for outages could face catastrophic consequences including a very real risk to life