INSTITUTE NEWS
A fitting 400th anniversary celebration in Portsmouth
IHEEM’s Southern Branch reached a significant milestone in 2023, marking its 400th Branch Meeting on 13 November, following its formal inception during 1967. Chris James, IEng, MIHEEM, who is Senior Estate Maintenance & Infrastructure Manager at Solent NHS Trust, and co-ordinated the celebratory meeting, writes: “The half-day event, supported by Solent NHS Trust, and held at the St Mary’s Community Health Campus in Portsmouth, presented an opportunity to celebrate the established history of the so-called IHEEM home- town branch encapsulating Hampshire, The Isle of Wight, parts of West Sussex, Wiltshire, and Dorset. This event also allowed the local branch to align with the broader 80th anniversary celebrations of IHEEM, with many of the Head Office team attending the proceedings.” Chris James continued: “The gathering
provided both a look back in time to when healthcare engineering was arguably a less pressured environment, and crown immunity was seen as a possible flag of convenience, through current times, as well as a look ahead to what the future of our unique industry, and indeed IHEEM as an institute, might hold. “After a networking lunch, attendees
were given an escorted technical tour by the Solent Estates Department of St Marys Hospital, Block B. This building began life as a multi-storey maternity wing built in the 1990s, but has recently been repurposed under an £8 m project – showcasing how traditional estate is being transformed in response to the changing clinical requirements and agile working expectations within modern healthcare This transformation followed the themes promoted in the Lord Carter report on estate rationalisation,
Pete Sellars said IHEEM had become a centre of excellence and knowledge on the built environment.
which were further underlined by Sir Robert Naylor. “After I had formally welcomed invited
guests and attending Branch members,” Chris James explained, “the event’s first speaker, IHEEM CEO, Pete Sellars, reflected on the Institute’s journey – beginning with its humble origins and founding principles some 80 years ago. He focused particularly on the credibility and prominence that IHEEM has gained in the intervening years; it had – he said – become a centre of excellence and knowledge on the built environment, and a major contributor to, and provider of, design, operation, and maintenance guidance. Pete cited the knowledge and professionalism of the membership as being instrumental.
Recounting an interesting history “The next to speak was Derek Chaplin, a Fellow of IHEEM, and ex-Head of Estate Services at University Hospitals Southampton. A familiar Institute figure, he has been a member for half a century, holding many roles, at both
branch and national level. He recounted enthusiastically the Branch’s fascinating journey, recalling that many of his mentors worked at the Regional Health Board from the early 1970s onwards – when the hospital engineering fraternity would meet bi-monthly on a Saturday afternoon – through to more recent times. “The names of David Wicks, Andy
Wavell, and Richard Boyce, to name but a few, were notable in the longevity and success of the Southern Branch, leading up to the new millennium. “Reference was made to a book in use
Mark Young, Deputy Director of Estates & Facilities at Solent NHS Trust, detailed a range of impressive statistics evidencing the considerations around future planning of healthcare services at strategic ICB level.
8 Health Estate Journal January 2024
since 1980, which had formally charted the attendees at every branch meeting since; those present in November were politely requested to register their attendance for posterity. Derek Chaplin’s branch history lesson, journeying through the decades, noted the significant event of the 200th IHEEM Southern Branch Meeting held on 13 September 1980 at Herrington Hospital, Dorchester, almost a quarter of a century before, with Lawrence Turner (Static Systems) as the incumbent President, and his Rolls-Royce, there to mark the occasion In closing, Derek noted a statement from The Institute’s 1944 AGM that still resonates today; it explained that the ‘prime object’ of the Institution’s formation was ‘to raise the standards of engineering in hospitals, and of the engineer, and to introduce adequate standards of competency and qualification’. Charlie Hinchey, Intelligent Buildings Solution Healthcare Lead for Honeywell/ Trend, provided a CPD-accredited presentation linking the past with the present and possible future of ‘intelligent building’ in healthcare. He explained the fundamentals of BEMS (Building Energy Management Systems), and how the Internet of Things allows a greater analytical approach to optimising assets
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