RECENT NEWS

Working together, Wantage Town Council, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and the local NHS, Oxfordshire County Council, and Vale of White Horse District Council, have agreed an investment programme that will see nearly £1 m being used to refurbish Wantage Community Hospital’s ground floor so that it can accommodate more clinic-based services across physical healthcare and mental health.

More innovative healthcare technologies could soon be adopted by the NHS under reforms proposed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Leading architect, design, and masterplanning practice, FWP’s specialist mental health team is working with Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust to ‘transform’ its Health-Based Places of Safety (HBPoS).

On 27 March the Healthcare Infection Society (HIS) will facilitate a workshop, sponsored by Sidara, and held at the latter’s central London headquarters, which will bring together experts from across the construction and infection prevention professions to address mitigating infection risks in hospital design and construction.

A new analysis from Siemens Financial Services (SFS) – titled ‘Healthcare spending: addressing the big issue?’, assesses ‘the widening gap between healthcare resources and healthcare costs’, and – as the business puts it – ‘the role of financing in closing this rift’.

Version 1, ‘a global leader in digital transformation’, has been awarded a national contract to support The Health Service Executive (HSE) in delivering ‘digitally enabled’ healthcare services across Ireland.

The Combustion Engineering Association (CEA)’s new General manager, Michael Kaye (pictured), has a strong background in mechanical and design engineering, coupled with years of industry leadership, and – the Association says – brings both expertise and a fresh perspective to the long-standing trade association and educational charity.

Peabodys, which first began serving ‘gourmet organic’ Fairtrade coffee and freshly prepared food within hospitals in London in 1997, has recently opened its 12th coffee shop, at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester.

Healthcare engineers looking to get a better understanding of UPS systems in medical environments can learn about the latest guidance on the subject provided by HTM 06-01 in an hour-long free webinar hosted by Kohler Uninterruptible Power in conjunction with Health Estate Journal taking place at 11.00 a.m. on 18 March.

Carrier is expanding its apprenticeship programme in the UK, in a move that it says reaffirms its commitment to training highly skilled HVAC professionals and helping to bridge the skills gap in the industry.

GPs in England have saved almost £3 million on their healthcare waste bills thanks to the intervention of technology provided by leading independent healthcare waste management company, Anenta, the company says.

Facility Monitoring Systems (FMS), which provides contamination control solutions, has joined Trescal, ‘a global leader in calibration services’, in what the former describes as ‘a significant milestone’ for it.

Corporate services provider, NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), has unveiled a £500 m framework agreement designed to help public sector organisations – including the NHS – decarbonise their estates.

CIAT has reinforced its call for the new UK government to prioritise indoor air quality (IAQ) in forthcoming legislation, citing findings from a recent Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) event held on the third World Ventilation Day.

In one of his first duties since his formal installation at Aston University’s first winter graduation ceremony on 20 January, the University’s new Chancellor, Dr Jason Wouhra, has opened a £1.5 m healthcare teaching facility at the University which includes two interconnecting five-bed wards and an interactive immersive room.

Cygnet Health Care will open a new women’s mental health facility in Stoke-on-Trent this summer, allowing more women to receive the support they need closer to home.

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care (the Coalition), in collaboration with Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), is launching a new national awareness initiative to reduce and re-use plastics in healthcare settings, in a three-year project funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

The Government has confirmed funding and what it describes as ‘a realistic timetable to put the New Hospital Programme on track to deliver all of its hospital projects’.

Data scientists and clinical researchers in Scotland are working with high street opticians for what is reportedly the first time to develop a digital tool that can predict a person’s risk of dementia from a routine eye test.

NHS Trusts, other healthcare providers, and organisations and individuals within the architectural and construction supply chain, have a great opportunity to have their scheme, project, or service-user engagement, recognised and celebrated at this year’s Design in Mental Health Awards, with the ceremony taking place at the end of the first day of the DiMH 2025 conference and exhibition at Manchester Central – 3 June.