The NHS and its building infrastructure are undoubtedly facing challenges that could impact the health of vulnerable patients, but there is another risk which could add to these if not taken seriously – Legionella. Legionella is a waterborne bacterium that lives in the natural environment, but generally only becomes a major risk to human life

In the second in a series of hospital wastewater-related articles running in HEJ this year (the first was published last month), Peter Orendecki, Senior Contracts manager and Water AP at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, highlights the apparent lack of understanding of the risks posed by hazardous bacteria in hospital waste systems among some

Alison Ryan, deputy Healthcare lead at Mott MacDonald, Chris Kelly, an associate director, Estates Compliance and Risk, at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), and Mike Cooke, MD, North & Scotland, at Vital Energi Utilities, look at the role of regional heat networks in addressing some of the challenges ahead with respect to achieving Net

Clive Nattrass, who is on secondment to the NHPower programme from the Carbon and Energy Fund, explains in this article how the programme is using collaboration to manage risks associated with Trusts progressing to Net Zero, while his colleague, the CEF’s Technical director, Stephen Lowndes, focuses on the opportunities for decarbonisation of natural gas at

The New Hospital Programme is about so much more than construction; we are responsible for delivering buildings that are clinically relevant and flexible for the future. The bottom line is that we need to create a better space for care, so it is important that we view new hospital builds as if we were the

With record-breaking temperatures increasingly becoming the new normal across Canada, and catastrophic wildfires and floods a not-too-distant memory, the time for climate resilience planning was yesterday. Globally, we have seen 1.1 °C of warming since pre-industrial times, and Canada is warming faster than the global average, due to its northern latitude. At the 2022 Canadian

COVID-19 was first confirmed in Canada at the end of January 2020. With this came great urgency to respond in a way that embraced existing infection control and treatment protocols while battling a rapidly expanding and unfamiliar enemy, as well as an unprecedented demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). Early in the pandemic, Health Canada

Zoe Allen, the company’s Marketing and Product Innovation director, outlines the new opportunities in this field for those charged with maintaining such equipment – typically NHS EFM professionals – via the ability to audit, collate, and evaluate data on the performance, reliability, and operation over time of individual machines In the broadcast and printed media

Jackie Hook CChem, MRSC, and Lucy Cripwell (BSC Hons), of the Research and Development team at JLA – a specialist in the supply and servicing of catering, laundry, infection control, fire safety and security, and heating and air-conditioning systems, discuss the contribution of laundry facilities as part of a hospital or other healthcare facility’s overall

Given the challenges of the past two years, it is essential that hospitals and other healthcare facilities continue to maintain a robust strategy to ensure patient safety. Here, Tony Stubbs, Business Development manager (Healthcare) at Veolia Water Technologies UK (VWT UK), explains why a consistent, pure water supply, and smart monitoring solutions, should be an

Effective ventilation is vital to ensure safe, comfortable, and efficient indoor environments. For hospitals and healthcare facilities in particular, ventilation is a critical component in a building’s life-support system. There are a number of reasons that specifications for hospital ventilation systems are significantly more stringent than for typical commercial buildings. Use of healthcare premises is

What is a digital or ‘smart’ hospital? There is no universally agreed definition, but one thing that is clear is that the healthcare sector stands on the cusp of extraordinary change, with digital technology offering real solutions to tackling the healthcare challenges of today and tomorrow. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital adoption, as it was

Kevin O’Neill, Architect at HLM Architects, explains how the practice developed what it believes is a ‘unique’ eight-bedded cluster layout for the 144 single bedrooms within the new North Wing at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry in Northern Ireland. He describes this as ‘a unique concept within healthcare design’, with ‘the potential to drive substantial efficiencies’,

Carbon emissions play a key role in contributing to global warming and climate change. Climate change, of course, not only affects the environment, but also our health, contributing to, and indeed worsening, conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and respiratory diseases such as asthma. By working towards a smaller carbon footprint, we can simultaneously reduce the

In the first in a series of three articles planned to run in HEJ in coming months, Dr Mike Weinbren, a consultant medical microbiologist at King’s Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, and a Specialist Advisor, Microbiology, on England’s national New Hospital Programme, examines some of the major health risks to patients and staff from