HefmA South West branch has celebrated 60 years of sharing best practice for patient and staff safety with a ceremony and educational seminar at Eastwood Park. Pulse reports on the day and invites one member to take a look back at the last 30 years of the branch.
This special event marked six decades of the South West branch sharing Estates and Facilities best practice in support of patient care. Over 70 delegates attended the educational seminar, which focused on HTM overviews and the latest updates and was led by Eastwood Park trainer, Mervyn Phipps. Many HefmA members would have undertaken their apprenticeship skills training at Eastwood Park at the start of their careers and still return to this day for further skills development and management courses.
To mark this special anniversary event, Adrian Eggleton, Deputy Director - Estates and Facilities, 2gether NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of HefmA South West branch, presented a plaque to Eastwood Park Training CEO, John Thatcher and planted a tree. This was significant as the Regional Engineers Association chose to plant a stand of trees in 1981 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the formation of the branch. In the early 1990s the South West branch was absorbed into HefmA.
Adrian Eggleton comments: “The new generation of Estates and Facilities managers in the South West have chosen to plant this commemorative tree at Eastwood Park today in recognition of the historic links and to celebrate the new strategic partnership the South West Branch has with Eastwood Park Training in providing bespoke educational seminars. We are delighted it will be here for many more years to come and will eventually be moved closer to the new training centre being built on the estate.”
A member reflects
Andy Hayes, Head of Estates and Facilities, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, shares his memories from the last 30 years of the HefmA South West branch.
"My first recollections come from around 1983 when I was Assistant Hospital Engineer at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. I remember individuals such as John Moody, District Works Officer from Exeter; Mike Lees, Chief Engineer at Bristol Royal infirmary; Ron Coleman, District Engineer from Somerset Health Authority and ‘Nobby’ Clark who was a South West Regional Electrical Engineer.
"Our meetings were usually held at Lyngford House in Taunton. I didn’t attend regularly, but I did get an invite occasionally to listen to presentations or to attend training sessions.
"A number of topics were discussed at that time including the introduction of the works information system (WIMS), a bonus scheme for the direct Labour Organisation and the proposal to provide a regional laundry service to cover the South West.
By 1995 I was a member of the South West Estate Managers Group and recall individuals such as David Palmer from Somerset; Bill Byers from Cornwall; John Rogers from Southmead; Doug Grewcock from Bristol Royal infirmary and Steve Goodchild from Cheltenham.
At this time, arrangements for meeting venues were always a bit relaxed and we would meet wherever we could find a suitable room. Often this was the Creech Castle Hotel in Taunton in what I remember was a grand looking banqueting suite. We were a very small group at that time and it was not unusual for us to sit down with only six members. We all took turns chairing the meeting and, of course, recording and providing notes - mine were usually very brief!
Towards the end of the 1990s, John Orr from the Regional Health Authority became Chair of the group, which brought in a more professional approach, especially around administration which was provided by his secretary Mandy Smith, who went on to become secretary to HefmA South West.
The group made its home at Lyngford House and went from strength to strength as opportunities for networking became more apparent. We tackled some key issues - I particularly remember the lead up to the year 2000 when Simon Wood led our preparations for the ‘millennium bug’.
