IHEEM WALES 2024 AWARDS
Top athlete entertains dinner guests at Wales Awards
An Awards Dinner held on 28 June, the first day of the IHEEM Wales Regional Conference, Exhibition and Awards for 2024, which took place at the ICC Wales in Newport, saw guests witness the presentation of five awards, and hear an entertaining after-dinner speech by Colin Jackson CBE – the renowned Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete, who ranked in the world top 10 for 16 years, and was World No.1 in his discipline from 1992-1994. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Following welcome drinks in the Caernarfon Suite at the Celtic Manor Resort Hotel, a stone’s throw from the ICC Wales conference and exhibition venue, IHEEM Wales Branch Chair, John Prendergast, who is Senior Decontamination Engineer at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership – Specialist Estate Services, welcomed guests, and said he hoped all had enjoyed a productive and informative first day at the conference and exhibition. Announcing that he would be the night’s Master of Ceremonies, he recalled some of the – in many cases – considerably smaller-scale past Welsh Branch events, and said that it had been a Branch ambition over the past 2-3 years to hold a conference and exhibition at the ICC. He thanked IHEEM’s Head Office team, the organising committee, the Welsh Branch members involved, and staff at NHS Wales Shared Services, for making this a reality, and several Branch members for presenting at and chairing a number of this year’s conferences sessions. John Prendergast explained that in mid- summer 2023, the organisers of this year’s event had begun visiting potential venues, and had been highly impressed with both the ICC and the neighbouring Celtic Manor Resort Hotel. One of those involved had been Graham Stanton IEng, FIHEEM, AE(D), a Wales Branch and IHEEM stalwart who spent over 40 years in the Welsh Health Service, in particular at NHS Wales Shared Services, working in the sterilising and decontamination arena for the last 33 years until his retirement.
Contributor to national guidance During that time, Graham Stanton had represented the Welsh Health Service in the formation of national guidance, both for Wales and England’s Department of Health, and been instrumental in setting up and chairing active decontamination groups in both Sterile Services and Endoscopy. An Authorised Person (Sterilisers) from 1995, who in July 2008 became an Authorising Engineer (Decontamination), he chaired the
Top: IHEEM Wales Branch Chair, John Prendergast, Senior Decontamination Engineer at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership – Specialist Estates Services, welcomed guests, and paid tribute to the late Graham Stanton (inset), some of whose family attended the dinner. Bottom: Guests at the dinner enjoying pre-dinner drinks in the Caernarfon Suite at the Celtic Manor Resort Hotel.
IHEEM AE(D) Registration Board after stepping down as Chair of the IHEEM Decontamination Technology Platform, and represented IHEEM on the Professional Bodies Group (DPECF) bodies and Wales branch of IHEEM. Sadly, Graham Stanton died earlier
this year, and after John Prendergast concluded his welcome, he introduced Mark Furmage, Decontamination Engineer at NWSSP SES – who also knew Graham well – who raised a toast to a ‘departed friend and colleague’, and gave a short speech paying tribute to a highly
committed and much-loved individual and professional who he said had been a ‘good mentor to us all’. He also pointed out the ‘gold’ envelopes on each dinner table, and asked guests to use them to donate to Graham Stanton’s favoured charity – the RNLI. He told those gathered: “I think anybody in this room who has used any of NHS Wales’s services over the last 30-40 years has much to thank Graham for. He was a passionate engineer, and believed in patient safety. One of the key things I think everyone who knew Graham well would agree is that if he didn’t agree with
August 2024 Health Estate Journal 23
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