Editor’s Message

It is with pleasure we share with you the Spring 2022 Edition of Healthcare Facilities and apologise that this edition has been delayed by a few weeks.

Our cover article explores the Townsville University Hospital, Pharmacy Manufacturing Unit upgrade. QLD IHEA member, Mark Fasiolo explores this project and shares his experience in this state-of-the-art facility. IHEA members often express their appreciation at hearing of technology and improvement projects, whilst also considering lessons learned from articles like this. As Editor I am always keen to hear from members and industry professionals willing to share their experiences with readers.

We also share the IHEA 2022 Perth Conference ‘Best Paper Award’ presented by Dr Normand Brais of Sanuvox entitled ‘Upgrading from Indoor Air Quality to Indoor Air Safety’. Dr Brais was excited to receive the Best Paper Award and shared the recognition with his team.

I was able to attend the recent 2022 IFHE Congress that was hosted by the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (equivalent to IHEA). I attended the IFHE meetings in my capacity as an IFHE Executive Board Member and represented IHEA to the 57th Council Meeting. It was a pleasure to share the experiences and networking connections of another amazing national conference. Whilst it had a strong Canadian theme, there were a considerable number of papers presented from IFHE colleagues from around the world, with a strong focus on sustainability, de-carbonising healthcare facilities, responding to design changes as a result of COVID and a wealth of other important topics.

The IFHE launched an ambitious award project to recognise healthcare facilities around the world for reducing their energy consumption. The closing event of the CHES conference recognised the facilities who had reduced their energy consumption over a two-year period by more than 5%, and also recognised those who achieved a 10% reduction, and awarded “Best in Country” contributions. It was pleasing to see a facility from Perth, Western Australia given this global recognition amongst many facilities from North and South America, South Africa, Europe and the UK.

I take this opportunity to remind our Australian and New Zealand readers about the upcoming NZIHE Conference being held in Christchurch, New Zealand and encourage any IHEA members to consider attending this event. Please visit www.nzihe.org.nz for more information.

As always, I thank our members for their contribution to this Spring Edition of Healthcare Facilities and all of the sponsors and advertisers who have contributed to the excellent content before you.

Regards Darryl Pitcher – Editor