NEWS


New Hospital Programme publishes Supplier Guide


A new ‘Supplier Guide’, which will be updated regularly as the New Hospital Programme progresses, and highlights what those managing the programme say ‘is important to us and, what will be required from our supply chain’, was published on 14 April. The Department of Health & Social Care and NHSE/I said: “We want suppliers to get involved now, adding their expertise to ours, and realising the opportunities for the biggest hospital building programme in a generation. To realise the Programme’s


ambition, we will call upon the skills and expertise of companies of all sizes, across a broad range of sectors. To help businesses understand more about the programme, we are sharing our new Supplier Guide (https://qrco.de/bckONe) with the market.” NHSE/ I and the DHSC say the Guide


is ‘aligned’ to the Construction Playbook, adding: “The NHP will continue to develop and deliver supplier guidance across a range of accessible mechanisms to inform stakeholders of our strategic goals, provide greater transparency of opportunities,


and engage suppliers from across the UK and throughout the supply chain.” Organisations keen to get involved in the Programme can also view information on upcoming and awarded NHP opportunities, and sign up to a market engagement survey to stay informed of future opportunities, via the NHP’s Commercial Pipeline. (see https://qrco.de/bcj5Qc).


Better supporting those discharged from mental healthcare facilities


Experts at Northumbria University are supporting a £1 m research study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, which aims to improve the outcomes and experiences of those discharged from mental healthcare facilities. While some 50,000 people leave such


facilities across England annually, a national Mind survey found that 40 per cent have no plan in place to support them after they leave. Sarah Rae – a mental health service- user who experienced difficulties when discharged from mental health wards in the past – is now working alongside researchers from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), two other Trusts, and academics from six universities – including Northumbria. Determined to use her lived experience of two long-stay admissions to improve services for others, she is co-


Social Work, Education, and Community Wellbeing at Northumbria University. Dr Dalkin (left) is working with Professor Katie Haighton (right), a Professor of Public Health and Wellbeing at the University, on the research. The latter said: “We’ll firstly look at the evidence to identify what works, and what doesn’t, in current discharge planning approaches, and uncover why, to help inform the design of a tangible aid for the discharge process.”


leading the research with Dr Jon Wilson, a Consultant Psychiatrist at NSFT. The team is working with mental health service-users and carers to develop a new support package. “This kind of co-produced research adds


an extra dimension,” explained Dr Sonia Dalkin, Associate Professor of Applied Health Research from the Department of


NICE guidelines state that discharge planning should include staff working together with service-users. The idea of the study is to develop and adopt an ‘Engineering Better Care’ toolkit applicable and adaptable to the discharge process from the standpoint of the people involved – to include what people feel they need to stay well after leaving hospital.


Harnessing AI to save energy and improve user comfort


With buildings widely recognised as a major energy consumer – the global real estate market reportedly consumes 60% of the world’s electricity, and emits 28% of global carbon emissions – Arloid says its ‘innovative’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) ‘enables any building to cut energy bills amid the global fuel crisis’. It said: “Arloid Automation provides smart


technology that can enable any building management system to produce substantial energy savings. Through efficient optimisation of HVAC system performance, arloid.ai boosts energy efficiency.” Arloid Automation uses ‘Deep


Reinforcement Learning’ to automatically manage HVAC operation in a wide range of buildings via a secure Virtual Private Network. Arloid said: “The innovative AI makes decisions based on reinforced


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behaviour and real-time data to provide faster optimisation and better HVAC performance. Consequently, the technology is achieving up to 30% energy savings across over 23 million square feet. Buildings worldwide are realising the potential of machine learning to drive the


decarbonisation of the built environment.” While energy savings are the most notable benefit, Arloid says the technology can also ‘proactively ensure better user comfort, provide nuanced thermal conditions for sensitive buildings like hospitals, and help businesses achieve their carbon targets’. Arloid added: “AI trained using Deep Reinforcement Learning can process live data in real time, continuously monitoring and proactively adjusting systems to maintain the optimum settings – without the need for time-consuming external input.”


The Arloid ‘solution’ functions as follows:


l Building modelling engineers create a Digital Twin of the building, including everything from construction materials to occupancy rate. The model includes existing HVAC infrastructure locations, and is divided into micro thermal zones ‘for nuanced control’.


l Once the Digital Twin is complete, the AI begins to learn. During this period, Arloid runs 300,000 iterations of a simulated year, enabling arloid.ai to gather live data on ‘the correct response to different conditions and occupancy levels’.


l The training process provides the Arloid team with building performance insights that enable them to define the best settings for each microzone, reducing coolant, energy, and fuel consumption, minimising comfort index deviation, and aligning with carbon targets. The result is ‘energy savings of 30% in just 60 days, with zero upfront costs to building managers’.


MAY 2022 | THE NETWORK


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