With the UK's first high-energy Proton Beam Therapy Centre set to open next year at Manchester's The Christie, young patients with head and neck tumours, cancers close to the skull or spine, or a variety of soft tissue tumours, and adults with cancers difficult to treat using 'conventional' photon-based radiotherapy will, for the first time, be able to receive NHS proton beam therapy (PBT) without having to travel overseas. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, visited the site of The Christie's new £135 million PBT Centre to find out more about the design and construction of a facility which interserve construction director for the North-West, Phil Shaw, describes as one of the most complex and specialist he has worked on.

It is often said that the quality of the parking experience at a hospital or other healthcare facility makes one of the most lasting impressions on visitors. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, spoke to Phillip Herring, managing director at Indigo, the UK arm of one of Europe's leading 'bespoke parking solution' providers, to discover how, harnessing first-class customer service, the latest technology, and the ability to offer anything from simple car park management to 30-year Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) packages, the company is looking to extend a UK healthcare parking contract portfolio which already sees it work with 11 NHS Trusts across England, Scotland, and Wales.

Without substantial investment in the NHS estate, the Five Year Forward View cannot be delivered, and the estate will 'remain unfit for purpose and continue to deteriorate', an independent review of NHS property and estate in England headed by Sir Robert Naylor, the former CEO of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (pictured), concludes. Among the recommendations of the DH-commissioned review--which considers the opportunities to generate valuable funds via the sale of under-utilised NHS properties--is the establishment of 'a powerful new NHS Property Board', to 'provide leadership to the centre, and expertise and delivery support to Sustainability and Transformation Plans'.

Gerrett Lim, a sustainable building and LEED technical advisor at architecture and design firm, Perkins+Will, describes how the design and construction of a new a five-storey, 205,000 ft(2) wing at the Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, Alberta, was the first healthcare project in Canada to register with the new LEED-HC rating system.

In a paper awarded 'Best Member Paper' at the 2016 Institute of Hospital Engineering, Australia (IHEA) National Conference held at the Adelaide Oval last October, Mark Hooper BEng, executive project manager at Echuca Regional Health in Victoria, Australia, describes a A$66 million redevelopment project at the hospital--which is located in the historic port town of Echuca on the Murray river, two and a half hours north of Melbourne. He highlights some of the significant innovation that went into the project, in areas including plant operation and maintenance, emergency planning, resilience, and patient and staff comfort.

Catherine Zeliotis, healthcare leader and senior associate at global healthcare architectural practice, Stantec (pictured), discusses the latest thinking in the design of cancer centres, providing best practice examples from Stantec projects throughout the world.

Steve Squire, head of Sika Major Projects, discusses approaches to integrated specification at the New Papworth Hospital, which is currently under construction at the famous Addenbrooke's Hospital site in Cambridge. He explains that ensuring that the fabric of the building supports an extended service life for the hospital, excellent build quality, and reduced maintenance, have been a high priority, with Sika supplying a number of its products for use in different parts of the structure.

Steve Stott, managing director of Medical Air, discusses the many benefits of ultraclean ventilation systems in the 21st century operating theatre environment, explaining that the development of ever-more advanced and 'flexibly designed' UCV canopies has enabled them to be installed in a wide range of theatres, extending the variety of surgeries that can be undertaken, while helping to minimise the risk of surgical site infection.

Shaun Oakes, managing director at ievo, a north-east England-based manufacturer of biometric fingerprint readers, argues that growing use of biometrics technology can improve security and afford better protection to premises, valuable items, and people, across an ever-busier NHS.

Julia Fishman, managing director and vice-President, Clinical Strategy, at TeleTracking Technologies, discusses the in-use benefits of patient, staff, and asset tracking and flow technologies, arguing that their effective deployment across an NHS under considerable pressure on many fronts can free up more time to care, bring considerable cost and wider efficiencies, and help to address the perennial issue of 'bed blocking'.

Blanca Beato-Arribas, the Asset Performance Team leader at BSRIA, the ISO 9001-registered test, instruments, research, and consultancy organisation, describes her recent work testing the design of isolation rooms that allow the room to be optimally used for both infectious and immunocompromised patients. With pressure differentials the determining factor when controlling infection between an isolation suite and the rest of the hospital, she explains that air permeability levels within the suite should be as low as possible.

Concerned that engineering skills gaps, compounded by difficulties in attracting skilled tradespeople, will leave the Trust's Estates team poorly equipped and insufficiently skilled to meet the challenge of keeping a large acute hospital running efficiently over coming years, the management team within the Estates Maintenance Department at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has introduced a Workforce Development Programme to tackle existing skills gaps, bring in and retain able and enthusiastic new recruits, and ensure strong succession planning. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, met with the Trust's director of estates, Mark Bagnall, and head of Estates Maintenance, Paul Stafford, to find out more.

Kate Wild, business development manager at Veolia Water Technologies, discusses how to ensure 'the health of hospital boilers'.

Hospitals are among the biggest consumers of energy outside the energy-intensive manufacturing and industrial sectors. Should estates teams choose to embrace them renewable alternatives - such as solar power - have the potential to revolutionase consumption across the sector, explains Ian Dunning, head of Facilities & Assist Solutions at Styles&Wood Energy, the renewable energy support services division of property services group, Styles&Wood Plc.

Norman Smith, regional director for Mitie's North UK & Ireland operations, discusses how using 'intelligent pest management' strategies can transforms the effectiveness of pest control.