Forthcoming 'energy crunch' imminent

A looming energy crisis will hit the UK within the next five years, energy regulator Ofgem has warned on a number of occasions already this year, and public sector organisations, commercial businesses, and households, can all expect a series of price hikes as demand outstrips local resources. So says Shamir Jiwa, founder and MD of MAXIM Eyes UK, a Surrey-based energy consultancy that serves business and organisations across the UK and Poland. Here he gives his personal view on some of the key short- to medium-term energy and resource management issues facing both hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and the wider UK, in the face of dwindling supplies of some, and especially fossil-fuel derived, forms of energy.