Greetings To All IFHE Members Worldwide!
I am very excited to announce that we have added a new member to the IFHE Executive Committee (ExCo). Pete Sellars from the United Kingdom and IHEEM has accepted my invitation and will be joining ExCo at our next meeting in August.
Pete has over 40 years’ experience of managing and delivering professional healthcare estate & facilities services and has held senior management roles at national, strategic, and operational levels within the Department of Health and the NHS. Pete was appointed as President of The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM) in 2016 and since 2018 has held the position of IHEEM Chief Executive Officer. He is also a past President of the International Federation Healthcare Engineers European Union (IFHE-EU). Pete’s skillset and experience will be a welcomed addition to our great team. I am very fortunate to have such a dedicated and talented group to work with on ExCo.
The plans are proceeding nicely for the next in person ExCo and Council meetings in Mexico City hosted by the Sociedad Mexicana de Architectos Especializados en Salud (SMAES) at their annual conference that will take place between November 3rd – 9th, 2023. At each of our ExCo meetings, Briseyda Reséndiz Márquez, President of the Congress and IFHE ExCo Director provides an update on the conference, and it continues to look extremely exciting! Please read more about it in this newsletter and on our website. I am looking forward to seeing many of you in Mexico City.
The planning for our IFHE 2024 Congress in Cape Town continues and is being led by Kevin Poggenpoel and his team at the South African Federation of Healthcare Engineering (SAFHE). I am very impressed with the strong planning group that has been formed to organize the congress. So please start making plans for attending IFHE 2024 in Cape Town, October 17th – 19th, 2024.
The 2023 IFHE EU Congress hosted by the Ingenieurs Hospitaliers de France (IHF) was held in Paris, France June 14th – 16th. I was informed that it was well organized and very successfully implemented. Please read more about it in this newsletter in the article by Daniela Padrini. I would have enjoyed attending but unfortunately my vacation plans made it impossible.
As I mentioned in the previous newsletter members of IFHE ExCo plan to meet virtually with the executive of all individual A Member Associations of IFHE and ask how we can better serve our members. I am pleased to say we initiated this process with a meeting with the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES). One of the areas of focus in that conversation was our website, which we intend to improve in the coming years. CHES is also working on their website, so the discussion was extremely helpful. We look forward to meeting with other A Member Organisations in the coming months. We have most recently met with the executive of the Association of Medical Facility Professionals (AMFP), our US members and discussed various improvements including webinars and our awards program. It was a great conversation where I believe both parties learned about each others’ organizations.
Please read the update from Walt Vernon, IFHE 2nd Vice President on our Global Healthcare Energy Awards in this newsletter. As mentioned previously, the award is changing to a carbon reduction focus and is now known as “Cut the Carbs” IFHE Global Healthcare Carbon Challenge. Please start preparing to participate in the 2024 award.
I would also like you all to start thinking about healthcare projects that you have been recently involved with in your country, so you can submit them for the 2024 International Building Award. This prestigious award will be presented in Cape Town at the 28th Congress of IFHE.
As you know, our number one goal is to improve the value of membership of IFHE. And I repeat the statement of other newsletters – if you have any suggestions of what and how we can do better, please contact me at steve.rees@ahs.ca
Thank you, and please take care.
Steve Rees
President, IFHE
