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£40 m Urgent and Emergency Care Centre opens in Walsall
A new, modern Urgent & Emergency Care Centre for Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, designed by BDP, and built by Tilbury Douglas, has opened at Walsall Manor Hospital. BDP said: “In 2021, Walsall Healthcare
NHS Trust expected a significant increase in local demand for emergency care as a result of a change in catchment area associated with the opening of the nearby Midland Metropolitan Hospital. This led to a need to increase capacity, and to the design of a new, state-of-the-art, two- storey new-build extension adjacent to the existing emergency department at Walsall Manor Hospital. The designs also included the refurbishment of the existing department to provide accommodation which supports an integrated model of emergency, urgent, and ambulatory care.” Procured through ProCure22, the
£40 m facility provides the Trust with 4,864 m2
of additional clinical space, and
includes an Urgent Treatment Centre, a Paediatric Assessment Unit, an Acute Medical Unit, and a Medical Ambulatory Unit. Specialist facilities include an isolation room for infectious patients, bariatric provision, and digital X-ray rooms. The new building will help meet local demand, caring for up to 90,000
On-site wastewater treatment can reduce AMR risks
The latest WHO report on antimicrobial resistance surveillance, Antimicrobial resistance surveillance in Europe 2022, highlights the scale of the challenge now facing hospitals, reports Pharmafilter.
urgent admissions per year. Max Martin, Architect principal at BDP,
explained: “Good healthcare design is about creating spaces that are responsive and flexible to help the brilliant NHS teams save lives. For Walsall Manor we responded quickly to the clinical requirements, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact that this new emergency department will have on the staff and the community. We are immensely proud of the role we played in the project.” Eddie Hughes, MP for Walsall North, added: “It’s taken a long time to get to this stage, with such a huge amount of effort by so many people, including the brilliant emergency department team, project managers, clinical directors, and Operations – not to mention countless other staff.”
‘Market-leading’ MES companies merge and rebrand as Ergéa
Althea UK and Medipass Healthcare – two of the UK’s leading Managed Equipment Services (MES) companies – have merged operations and been re- branded as Ergéa.
The newly formed Ergéa is now – they maintain – ‘the UK’s leading independent Managed Equipment Services business’, covering radiology, radiotherapy, endoscopy, cardiology, and surgical theatres. Ergéa also provides vendor- independent maintenance services for endoscopy, radiology, and biomedical equipment in the UK. Althea UK’s CEO, David Rolfe, will continue as CEO of Ergéa UK. The CEO of Medipass Healthcare, John Muolo, will continue
leading the Radiotherapy MES operations of Ergéa UK as Executive Vice-President and director of Strategic Relationships. “Combining the capabilities of Althea and Medipass Healthcare in the UK allows us to bring added value to customers by offering a broader range of solutions,” said David Rolfe. “This enhanced capability has already enabled the first new MES contract to be signed – a direct result of the expertise, experience, and customer relationships of the combined teams. Our new name, Ergéa, derives from a blending of words in the Greek language, and translates as ‘Working for health’. The name captures our ambition to help bring better healthcare and innovations to patients.” Ergéa UK is part of the Ergéa Group, a leading European cancer care and diagnostic imaging services platform. Ergéa’s service delivery, customer support, staff, and workshop locations, will remain the same, and will not be affected by the merger.
14 Health Estate Journal April 2023
It said: “Infections caused by common bacteria like Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp show high and increasing levels (above 50%) of resistance to treatment. Over 20% of
E.coli isolates were found to be resistant to both first-line drugs and second-line treatments. Using advanced on-site wastewater treatment, hospitals can now prevent the passage of antibiotics and multi-drug resistant genes into the environment through wastewater, a significant pathway. Pharmafilter works with hospitals across Europe to treat large daily volumes of effluent that, in our experience, are rich with pharmaceuticals, metabolites, cytotoxins, and pathogenic contamination.”
Pharmafilter’s system
decontaminates waste and purifies wastewater at its source. A small treatment plant connects to a hospital’s sewerage before outfall to mains, and captures all wastes introduced to the system via on-ward shredders, sinks, toilets, showers, and drains. It uses a process of time and temperature (specifically hydrolysis, ultrafiltration, high flux ozonation, activated carbon, and ultraviolet light) to remove all pharmaceuticals, micropollutants, and contaminants, below a detectable limit. The result is ‘highly polished water that can be recycled as greywater, or discharged to public sewers’. Pharmafilter works with partner hospitals to meet the requirements of new and evolving environmental regulations. Its system has been licensed under an EA IED, Utility wastewater discharge, and Local Authority building permit. It added: “Hospitals can treat their wastewater and waste as a resource, reducing and recovering water, and harvesting thermal energy and materials with a high calorific value, while radically reducing their environmental footprint.”
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