Keynote highlights a ‘timely platform for change’

Giving the keynote speech on the opening morning of this year’s Healthcare Estates 2017 conference, Simon Corben, director and head of Profession, NHS Estates and Facilities Efficiency & Productivity Division at NHS Improvement, outlined some of the key challenges and milestones for him and his team during his first six months in post. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie reports, subjects covered ranged from the ramifications for the healthcare estate sector of the Naylor and Carter Reports, and the NHS response to June’s Grenfell Tower fire, to the establishment of a new Estates Programme Board, chaired by Lord O’Shaugnessy. Before his address, the audience heard from IHEEM’s CEO and President, and from the President of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE).

Simon Corben’s presentation was preceded by brief addresses by both IHEEM’s chief executive, Julian Amey, and President, Pete Sellars. Initiating the proceedings, Julian Amey reminded the audience that in 2018 the Institute will mark its 75th anniversary. Against this backdrop he noted that this year’s IHEEM conference was being graced by three ‘Presidents’ – IHEEM’s own Pete Sellars, the IFHE President, Douwe Kiestra – who later spoke about plans for the IFHE’s international conference for 2019, which will be held alongside Healthcare Estates 2019 in Manchester, and the President of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE), Thomas Chan, several of whose colleagues also attended this year’s show. 

After Julian Amey’s address, Pete Sellars explained that the IHEEM CEO had asked him to briefly reflect on some of the highlights of his first year. He told delegates: “In fact I just want to say that it feels fantastic; I cannot believe the support that we have had from within the Institute – the central team, the Council, the regional branches, and indeed from our colleagues outside IHEEM, who have started to come closer to the Institute and its work – people like HefmA, the university sector, and our academic Institutes, along with industry leaders.” On taking up office in 2016 he had, he explained, been asked to set a five-year vision for IHEEM; key elements included raising the Institute’s profile both in the UK and internationally, and working to ensure that IHEEM was recognised as the UK’s leading professional estates and facilities management body, with ‘a fantastic 75-year pedigree, and considerable engineering knowledge and expertise’.