TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Career Pathways SPOTLIGHT ON JIM LEIPER BENG (HONS), CENG, MIHEEM L
eaving school at 16, Jim Leiper undertook a mechanical engineering apprenticeship with Yarrow Shipbuilders on Glasgow’s River Clyde. In 1980, aged 23, after gaining a City & Guilds Full Technological
Certificate, he joined the NHS as an Assistant Engineer, looking after three acute hospitals in Paisley. He joined IHEEM in 1980, and was registered as an Incorporated Engineer. Over the next two years he obtained a Certificate in Management Studies, and began a three-year Diploma in Building Services Engineering, gaining the qualification in 1987. In 1986, following his appointment as an AP in MGPS, Sterilisation, and High Voltage, and now an Estate Officer, he worked on decommissioning the 500-bed Royal Alexandra Infirmary, and the commissioning of engineering systems within its new-build replacement, the 870-bed Royal Alexandra Hospital. Promoted to a Senior Engineer in at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in 1987, he was involved in the planning and replacement of the main electrical distribution, with the hospital fully operational. Returning to the RAH in 1989 as Assistant Unit Works Officer, in 1989 he restarted part-time study on a five-year BEng degree. In 1994 Jim moved to NHS Tayside as Head of Estates. He achieved his BEng First Class Honours in 1995, winning the ‘Best Performance’
trophy, and in 1995 was registered as a Chartered Engineer. Over the next decade in Dundee, Jim was involved in the specification, negotiation, and delivery of Scotland’s first PFI deal. He was the Board’s Technical Representative on the brown-field development and decommissioning of several Victorian hospitals, delivering its Acute Services Strategy. In 2003 he became the first Chair of the Scottish Engineering Technical Advisory Group, chairing it for the 12 years, and being credited as ‘Co-Inventor’ of the Statutory Compliance And Risk Tool (SCART) – a web-based Scottish Government-mandated system adopted by all NHS Boards. In 2002, Jim left to undertake consultancy work in Calgary, Canada on a ‘peer review’ of the Health Authority’s $900m strategic capital programme. Joining NHS Fife in 2005 as Director of Estates, Facilities & Capital, for the next decade he was the Board’s Technical representative on major new-build development and the services transition for NHS Fife’s strategic clinical services reconfiguration. Recommendations from the National Working Group he served on led to the Scottish Government’s policy on NHS ‘Single Rooms Provision’. He also contributed to national
Jim has contributed to the production of national guidance documents through several advisory groups
guidance. In 2006 he again undertook consultancy work in Canada for Vancouver Island Health Authority, advising its CEO on Estates & Facilities Services structure and operational delivery. In 2007, he became a Gateway Reviewer, and has since undertaken Reviews in Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland. Over the next few years, he led on establishing National Technical Advisory Groups within Health Facilities Scotland under SETAG.
In 2009/10 he led on the registration of Vision Romania, a Scottish Charity, and worked with other Trustees with underprivileged children and people with disabilities in Romania, establishing a dental surgery there with donated, redundant NHS equipment, where UK dentists delivered dental care. Work has continued there with disabled groups and young people, feeding programmes, annual shoebox appeals, annual respite camps, work with an orphanage in Hunedoara, and a monthly community feeding programme. Between 2011 and 2013, Jim co-chaired a National Working Group with NHS National Education for Scotland to develop a ‘National
Career Framework’ for NHS Scotland’s EFM staff. In 2015 he became Strategic Facilities Director at Health Facilities Scotland, providing guidance on strategic technical issues to the Scottish Government Health Directorate. He hosted two Scottish Estates & Facilities Conferences, represented Scotland on the Board of the European Healthcare Property Network, and contributed to IFHE conferences. Taking early retirement from HFS in 2017, a year later he joined NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board part-time as the lead
Technical Advisor, latterly giving specific assistance with the Board’s responses to the Scottish Hospitals Public Inquiry. He left the role in 2023 to allow a focus on the Limited Company, AHEEM (Advisors in Healthcare Engineering & Estate Management) that he started in 2019. Since founding it, Jim has continued working with NHS Boards in Scotland, and undertaken work for Private Service Partners. As part of the services he provides to the Health Boards, Jim particularly enjoys mentoring Estates Managers. He has recently been active on IHEEM’s Membership Committee, assessing Membership Applications, and will be trained in 2024 to expand this contribution.
You can read more about the work of IHEEM’s Membership and Registration Committee and their recent professional registration interviewer training in the April edition of the Health Estate Journal.
March 2024 Health Estate Journal 13
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