RECENT NEWS

In what it describes as ‘a strategic acquisition and a significant milestone’ for the business, OCS, the global facilities service provider, has acquired Accuro, ‘a UK provider of business-critical facilities management services to the education and healthcare sectors’.

As the time comes for many NHS Trusts to update their Green Plans, in line with the NHS’s concerted drive towards a Net Zero carbon service, how many are on track to deliver their stated objectives?

Plans to develop the Dorset County Hospital (DCH) site in Dorchester – including building a brand-new Emergency Department and Critical Care Unit – have been approved by Dorset Council.

Healthcare infrastructure specialist, Archus, has been re-appointed as the lead supplier to NHS England for the delivery of the next phase of the NHS Estates Technical Standards and Guidance Programme.

Integrated Health Projects (IHP), the joint venture between VINCI Building and Sir Robert McAlpine, celebrated the topping-out of the Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s new mental health facilities in Chesterfield and Derby early in October.

Yewdale says its latest anti-ligature en-suite door, SafeDoor Connect, is designed to offer the high quality that its original SafeDoor provides, but with repositioned magnets fixed to the door rather than being hidden in the door’s hinge – ‘to ensure zero risk of service-users accessing the magnets’.

The expansion of global modular building specialist, Volumetric Building Companies, continues with the opening of its first operation in Ireland, which it says will be an international centre of excellence for MMC to serve Irish, UK, European, and global markets.

Lexica, a specialist consultancy supporting health and life sciences organisations in the UK and internationally, has appointed Yogesh Luhar as Associate Director to its Property Consultancy team.

Unite, one of Britain’s leading trade unions, has called on all NHS organisations to urgently establish a risk register for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) that may have been used in buildings across the NHS estate.

Research commissioned by Vodafone has found the NHS will lose out on £1 billion of savings every year if 5G is not rolled out quickly across the UK.

Abloy UK has launched Incedo Offline, an extension to the Incedo ecosystem that it says allows access to be managed both in real-time and offline at the same premises, ‘providing even greater control and flexibility’ for Security and Facilities managers.

Eighty-five per cent of business leaders within the UK and Ireland’s healthcare sectors believe the ‘energy crisis’ will impact their organisation’s ability to meet emissions reduction plans, according to research published by Schneider Electric, the specialist in ‘the digital transformation’ of energy management and automation.

An experienced ‘health and care advocate’ has become the second partner in as many months to join Bevan Brittan’s market leading Health & Care - Regulatory team, as it continues to grow to meet client demand.

WiFi provider, WiFi SPARK, is rebranding its healthcare arm as SPARK Technology Services, with the new identity marking the completion of the integration of the former Hospedia bedside unit business, and ‘a new vision for the NHS, based on patient engagement and application services’.

IHP says that the development of three new ‘state-of-the-art’ wards, and refurbishment of two existing wards at The Rivers Centre, Hellesdon Hospital in Norwich for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has ‘taken an exciting step forward’

Work on a new, ‘state-of-the-art’ £105 m adult mental health inpatient unit, to improve mental health care and facilities for patients, is now underway in Manchester.

Plans for a BDP-designed expansion and upgrade to Birmingham Children’s Hospital have been approved by Birmingham City Council’s Planning Committee.

A music charity with over 25 years’ experience of working with care staff has released a new, free resource to – as it puts it – ‘inspire and encourage the use of music in dementia care’.

Sarah Woolnough, currently Chief Executive of Asthma + Lung UK, has been appointed as the new CEO of The King’s Fund, succeeding Richard Murray, who will step down in November.

The redevelopment of St Ann’s Hospital, a multi-purpose healthcare campus in Tottenham, included a new, purpose-built mental health inpatient building.