Carbon reduction and greater resilience in the pipeline

Claire Hennessy, head of Operational Estates and Facilities Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HEJ - May 2016), describes a major infrastructure project currently ongoing at Oxford's John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals to upgrade and modernize heating and energy systems - one of the most challenging aspects of which has been the installation of a 1.4 km district heating system (Energy Link) between the two sites, involving laying of a variety of pipework and cabling under local roads. Without the heating and energy project, she explains, not only would the Trust have struggled to get through another winter, but it could also not have contemplated the redevelopment of the Churchill site, or met the expected needs of the John Radcliffe Hospital now and into the future.