COMMENT IHEEM Building a skilled and sustainable workforce


JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF HEALTHCARE ENGINEERING AND ESTATE MANAGEMENT


Editor: Jonathan Baillie jonathanbaillie@stepcomms.com


Technical Editor: Mike Arrowsmith


BSc(Hons), CEng, FIMechE, FIHEEM


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petermoon@stepcomms.com


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Publisher: Geoff King


geoffking@stepcomms.com


Publishing Director: Trevor Moon


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Journal Administration: Katy Cockle


katycockle@stepcomms.com


Journal Design: Dave Woodall


Published ten times a year by: Step Communications Ltd, Step House,


North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR Email: info@healthestatejournal.com Web: www.healthestatejournal.com Tel: 01892 779999 Fax: 01892 616177


In early March IHEEM and HEFMA jointly launched online a new Workforce Strategy for healthcare engineering and estates and facilities professionals, and at a webinar last month (see pages 8-9), Developing the EFM Workforce – A Partnership Approach, senior representatives from both organisations discussed the background to the Strategy and its aims – one key goal being to ensure effective succession planning. Indeed two of the day’s speakers in particular, Chief People Officer at NHSE/I, Prerarana Issar, and HEFMA National Chair, Jonathan Stewart, highlighted how much of a priority this now is – with a recent NHS survey indicating that at the time it was conducted, 34 per cent of the NHS Estates and Facilities workforce were aged 56 or older, and 75 per cent over 40. Meanwhile, with another of IHEEM and HEFMA’s ongoing aims being to increase diversity and equality, the survey revealed that although 50 per cent of this workforce is now female, only 20 per cent of senior positions are occupied by women, while under one in four EFM personnel have a BAME background, with just 5 per cent in leadership roles. With retaining able EFM staff a perennial challenge, one of the other key goals in the new IHEEM/HEFMA Workforce Strategy – designed to align with the NHS’s own Workforce Strategy – is ‘to address recruitment, retention, diversity,


COVER STORY


OPT Vita operating tables’ ‘unparalleled clinical benefits’


Published on behalf of: The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management, 2 Abingdon House, Cumberland Business Centre, Northumberland Road, Portsmouth, Hants PO5 1DS


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©2021: The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management UK ISSN 0957-7742


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Neither the Institute nor the Publisher is able to take any responsibility for views expressed by contributors. Editorial views are not necessarily shared by the Institute. Readers are expressly advised that while the contents of this publication are believed to be accurate, correct and complete, no reliance should be placed upon its contents as being applicable to any particular circumstances. Any advice, opinion or information contained is published only on the footing that The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management, its servants or agents and all contributors to this publication shall be under no liability whatsoever in respect of its contents.


East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) delivers high quality acute healthcare for the East of Lancashire. Starkstrom, the exclusive UK distributor for OPT Surgisystems operating tables and fixed table systems, is proud to be working with the ELHT’s Blackburn & Burnley Hospitals in providing the OPT Vita modular operating tables, which are compatible with the Trust’s da Vinci robotic surgical systems at both hospitals. Starkstrom says OPT modular operating tables ‘provide unparalleled clinical


benefits’, with a fully interchangeable modular design for all surgical disciplines. The OPT Vita boasts a safe working load in all dynamic extremes of 250 kg, along with a static safe patient weight of 454 kg. A very low working height of 575 mm is standard. ELHT finds this ideal, and is also benefiting from the OPT Vita’s fully traversing longitudinal shift, which allows C-arm access, and a digital handset display that ensures precise positioning.


The Theatre Team at ELHT said: “The Vita is a versatile operating table which can be used in a wide range of specialities and surgeries to the benefit of our patient care. We have found the Vita to be of particular benefit when used in conjunction with trans-oral robotic surgery due to its low working height. It also allows us to position our patients with precision, providing us with information on degrees of angles and tilt, which is important, as it gives us maximum surgical access,


while providing a safe environment for our patients and staff.”


Starkstrom 33 Turn Street Syston


Leicestershire LE7 1HP T: 0116 464 7480 E: info@starkstrom.com www.starkstrom.com


and appropriate pay’. Another is the creation of a Career Route Map – which has already been produced, but will be a ‘constantly evolving tool’. This extremely comprehensive interactive online resource (visit www.iheem.org.uk/ future-leaders) enables anyone from a young person interested in an EFM career, to a highly experienced estates professional keen to progress or switch roles, to ‘drill down’ into hundreds of different roles and see what each entails, the skills, experience, and qualifications required, and an indication of likely pay. One other really important announcement was the launch by IHEEM and HEFMA of a new, fully accredited, national apprenticeship and accompanying standard for Healthcare Engineering Specialist Technicians, developed by Eileen Bayles, who, for many years, has run the Northern and Yorkshire Assessment Centre. The apprenticeship and standard have been developed following extensive consultation with NHS Trusts nationally – with two options – for those wishing to train either as a Healthcare Estates Technician, or a Healthcare Medical Devices Technician. For details, visit the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education website, at: https://tinyurl.com/k7jextkb


Jonathan Baillie I Editor jonathanbaillie@stepcomms.com


June 2021 Health Estate Journal 5


health estate journal


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