RECENT NEWS

Northwood and Pinner Cottage Hospital is set to be redeveloped after achieving full planning permission, with around £11 million to be injected into the project ‘to cement better health outcomes for the 20,000 patients who access the facility’.

With NHS repair backlogs reaching record levels, and – as they put it – ‘the New Hospital Programme facing an uncertain future’, modular construction firms, Darwin Group and Portakabin are calling for ‘a re-think’ around how healthcare estates are planned and funded.

Assa Abloy Door Group has announced a new internal restructure that sees the company joining forces with all comparable business units across Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, to form a new global division – the Assa Abloy EMEIA Door Business Segment.

NHS Property Services is celebrating the delivery of 25 new social prescribing sites to its partners across the country, achieving its goal of 100 sites being made available for patients.

On 18 April, Per Mertesacker, current manager of the Arsenal Academy (pictured), officially opened 1 Lowther Road, a new NHS Integrated Community Mental Health Centre in Islington.

Over £3.8 billion of taxpayer money has been saved by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) in the last year alone, as the agency celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

The ninth 'Design with People in Mind' booklet from the Design in Mental Health Network (DiMHN), to be published in June, discusses the impact of art in mental healthcare settings, and asks ‘To what extent can art contribute to the making of a therapeutic space, and what evidence is there to support this?’

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has launched a new specification for ventilation hygiene as part of its ongoing efforts to minimise the risk posed by contaminated indoor air to human health and well-being.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) has installed the first ever piece of outdoor art at Stobhill Hospital’s Mental Health Campus in Glasgow, signalling a summer of work to improve the hospital’s greenspaces and outdoor facilities.

The new 'Designing for Everyone 'toolkit has been developed to help GP practices and health centres improve their buildings and the physical environment for people with learning disabilities, autism, and cognitive impairment.

Commenting on our joint briefing with the Centre for Mental Health and Mind, titled ‘Building a mental health workforce for the future’, Sean Duggan, CEO of the mental health network at the NHS Confederation said: “Mental health services have faced unprecedented demand over the last few years, with the impact of the pandemic and cost of living crisis increasing the amount of people coming forward needing support."

Novus Property Solutions has appointed Sean Ryan as head of Operations for Partnerships, part of its dedicated Interiors service, which it says is a vital element of its five-year growth strategy.

Construction firm, Graham, recently launched an ‘Immersive Pod’ experience to improve the mental health of builders on its Mossley Hill mental health facility construction site in Liverpool.

With rising water consumption, a growing population, and climate change, water conservation is becoming ever more pressing and – says Cistermiser – by 2050, Britain will require an additional 2.7 billion litres of water each day just to keep the taps running.

LinkLockers has announced what it says is ‘an exciting new partnership with eLocker – aimed at delivering cutting-edge smart locker solutions to its collective customer base’.

The UK’s only national charity dedicated to supporting people affected by bipolar has been working with the production team behind the new Channel 4 series, Big Mood, to help guide authenticity around the storyline.

The first episode of the six-part comedy is due to air on Channel 4 on 28 March.

A new ‘best-in-class’ 2MP Video Intercom from IDIS - the vandal-resistant and waterproof DC-I6212WRX – is the first NEMA 4X, IK10, and IP66-rated product of its kind offered by any video surveillance vendor, then company claims.

As part of a major initiative to ensure that the engineers of tomorrow can rise to the challenges of the climate emergency’, the Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC), which partners The Royal Academy of Engineering and Siemens Digital Industries Software, has launched a new free-to-use Sustainability Toolkit to embed new greener approaches into engineering education.

The launch of ‘an innovative screening tool in County Durham will prove a ‘game-changer’ in the diagnosis of ADHD across the UK and Ireland, its developers say.

A leading respiratory illness expert has claimed that facilities management and building services engineering will have a greater influence on worldwide human health and wellbeing than the medical and social care professions.