JOHN THATCHER – CEO; LINSEY TEMPLE – COO, EASTWOOD PARK, UK TRAINING
Raising the standards in staff development
Eastwood Park CEO John Thatcher and COO Linsey Temple discuss how international training programmes can support healthcare facilities and engineering staff from all over the world to improve their systems and management processes.
Despite our domestic views and opinions regarding the state of healthcare facilities and medical equipment here in the UK, we are still regarded by many countries as being one of the best in terms of the rigorous structures and processes we have in place to manage and maintain our healthcare facilities and medical equipment.
A number of countries have very little
with regards to legislative requirements or guidance documents governing any such facilities and/or equipment, meaning there is a vast difference in the management and maintenance systems and, as such, the quality of infrastructure and medical equipment in many hospitals overseas. It is also critical that these systems specify the competencies required by the staff and contractors that install, manage, maintain, and test the infrastructure and equipment. It therefore follows that it is crucial to have relevant occupational standards in place for each of these disciplines and high-quality training providers to support the initial development and the ongoing enhancement of the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes of the variety of staff working in these areas.
In the UK,
training in these areas is developed and delivered in line with Codes of Practice that look to apply or reference the associated
legislation in the form of Hospital Technical Memorandums (HTMs) and an awareness and appreciation of the NHS Estates and Facilities Workforce
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Action Plan. These guidance documents, along with the Premises Assurance Model (PAM), provide the framework to ensure consistency and quality in the application of the legislation and good practice standards in healthcare environments in the UK. It is this framework, along with the associated guidance documents and compliance training programmes, that is lacking in a number of other countries. This is why there is such an interest in the way we relate our initial and ongoing training programmes directly to the roles outlined in the guidance and in such a way as to encourage career development within these areas here in the UK. Here at Eastwood Park, we have many
ways in which we engage, develop, and support healthcare facilities and engineering staff, from many parts of the world, to improve their systems and processes in the management of healthcare buildings and equipment. This ranges from international delegates attending our scheduled courses and undertaking our online blended delivery Degree Programmes through to
John Thatcher
John has been CEO and director of training at Eastwood Park Ltd since 2003. He joined the business in the early 1990s as head of training support for what was then the UK NHS Training Authority. He has guided the organisation through significant change, taking it out of the
public sector to the private sector. John now heads the successful, independent, and expanding international training business.
Linsey Temple
Linsey joined Eastwood Park in 2021 as COO. She oversees the operational functionality of the business and works with managers to maximise efficiencies and improve the cohesiveness of the two sides of the business while allowing both to have some form of operational and financial independence.
We engage, develop, and
support healthcare facilities and engineering staff from many parts of the world
establishing relationships with delivery partners in country for localised delivery and, where appropriate, UK-based and local accreditation.
International students For many years now, international delegates have been visiting the UK to attend our range of courses. We often provide quotations or tenders for large volumes of delegates via in-country tendering processes. These bookings tend to have additional requirements such as flights, accommodation, VISA applications etc that we can assist with. The number of international students attending dropped during the pandemic but we are now seeing the numbers rising on a year-by- year basis. We also have international students on
our Degree (Foundation, BSc and soon MSc) programmes. As these programmes are delivered on a blended learning basis this suits the needs of the international students as attendance at face-to-face sessions is only required four times per year. All other engagements are completed online and in the students’ workplace with evidence being gathered and submitted via a portal to our Learning Management System and feedback is also provided via electronic means (email, portal and online video calls).
Figure 1. shows the development route that students will take to become
IFHE DIGEST 2025
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