The NHS has a legacy of ageing properties, many of which have ventilation systems where it is not possible to gain access for effective cleaning or mandatory annual safety inspection and testing of fire dampers. This lack of access is not a new issue, and needs to be afforded much higher priority on risk registers,

The COVID pandemic has raised awareness that hygiene is critical, and has highlighted the risk of infection spread when touch surface cleanliness is overlooked. However, manual cleaning is not always consistent, and surfaces assumed to be safe may actually be contaminated. It is well documented that only 5 per cent of people wash their hands

Within the Estates Department at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a major trauma centre in north-east England, the COVID pandemic placed significant pressure on engineering services, highlighting the need to maintain and improve the resilience and reliability of all key M&E plant. Now, in 2022, the new medical gas plant, developed by SHJ

A Net Zero and Sustainability keynote session on the second day of Healthcare Estates 2022 included a chastening look at 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. One of her key messages was a need for a considerable stepping

In an interesting session opening the second day of 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. They focused especially on improving infection resilience in the hospital environment, and tackling poorly ventilated spaces. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports

The presentation of awards in 12 categories, an after-dinner speech by England’s most capped female hockey player, and the chance to make new acquaintances, talk over the first day’s events, and renew contacts face-to-face, were among the highlights of last month’s Healthcare Estates 2022 IHEEM Awards Dinner in Manchester. Held on the evening of 4

Last month saw the Institute’s first ever female President officially take office. Alison Ryan, a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years’ engineering experience in healthcare, took over the chain of office from Paul Fenton at the Institute’s 2022 AGM at Healthcare Estates. Before the show, HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, met up with her to discuss

The introduction of ICT into hospitals is progressing explosively, but this has led to numerous challenges for the engineers and administrators involved in facility construction. According to a survey by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), about 50% of Japanese hospitals (those with inpatient facilities of 20 beds or more) have medical telemetry

Speaking at the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering’s 2022 Congress in Toronto, IHEEM’s CEO, Pete Sellars, and President, Paul Fenton, argued that the planning and construction of ‘siloed’ hospitals ‘is over’. Their key point was that ‘the way we measure hospital workload is outmoded – what matters now is the wider health and social care

Featuring a fixed laminar flow outlet in a compact design, with a novel adapter mechanism, this latest addition to the company’s popular Medical Water Filter range incorporates the same T-safe technology that is trusted to deliver safe water in over 350 hospitals in the UK and Ireland. The all new Medical Tap Filter Fixed Position offers

This article considers how the recently updated HTM 03-01 can be a catalyst for continuous operational improvements and service transformation. When supported with a ‘smart logbook’, Authorised Persons (Ventilation) can play an increasingly important role in informing their Trust’s Ventilation Safety Group (VSG), while effectively discharging their responsibilities for the practical implementation and operation of

Microbes are classified into distinct groups depending on their characteristics, but there are four main groups that have the most potential to cause harm to the human body, if conditions are optimal. These are bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa.1 These groups can also be known as opportunistic pathogens, as they have the ability to integrate

Fire Safety changed for good in June 2017, when the Grenfell Tower fire caused 72 people to lose their lives, and a further 70 to be injured, with 223 people escaping the blaze. The disaster prompted a government inquiry which was chaired by Dame Judith Hackett, and reported in May 2018 in a document titled

It is fair to say that we remain in turbulent times across the healthcare sector. We have all emerged from the pandemic hoping for some much-needed stability, and while there are promising signs of things getting back to some form of normality, it is clear that it will not be ‘business as unusual’ for quite

Lighting healthcare has always required specialist knowledge and experience in order to meet client expectations, but when I look at the last five or so years, I’d argue that that these levels of specialism are increasing project-on-project, yearon-year. I believe these trends are being driven, and accelerated, by a number of different factors: some healthcare-specific,