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In March 2007 the Chief Medical Officer called for a major improvement in public and professional engagement with venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention. Key to his recommendations for hospitals was a new requirement for a documented mandatory (VTE) risk assessment on every hospitalised patient. The purpose of this paper is to describe how one acute Trust responded to this call using regular Trust‐wide audit as a driver for change. The Trust now has evidence of sustained and ongoing improvement in compliance with documented VTE risk assessment and this has been associated with a reduction in the number and severity of VTE events.

The paper examines the approach that one Trust took to ensure that a documented VTE Risk Assessment is carried out on all hospitalised patients and that appropriate measures are taken to reduce the incidence of VTE events.

In March 2008, prior to the project, audit demonstrated that 15 per cent of patients had a documented risk assessment for VTE. After a VTE Implementation Working Group was set up and new assessment tools were piloted, evaluated, amended and re‐launched together with Trust‐wide education and general awareness‐raising sessions, the number of patients receiving a documented risk assessment has risen to a cross‐institutional average of 75 per cent.

The paper gives evidence that a planned approach, with simple practical tools, broad clinical engagement and intensive education delivered “at the coal‐face” can result in a systematic change in professional practice across a Trust.

Progress in retrofitting the UK's commercial properties continues to be slow and fragmented. New research from the UK and USA suggests that radical changes are needed to drive large-scale retrofitting, and that new and innovative models of financing can create new opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to offer insights into the terminology of retrofit and the changes in UK policy and practice that are needed to scale up activity in the sector.

The paper reviews and synthesises key published research into commercial property retrofitting in the UK and USA and also draws on policy and practice from the EU and Australia.

The paper provides a definition of “retrofit”, and compares and contrasts this with “refurbishment” and “renovation” in an international context. The paper summarises key findings from recent research and suggests that there are a number of policy and practice measures which need to be implemented in the UK for commercial retrofitting to succeed at scale. These include improved funding vehicles for retrofit; better transparency in actual energy performance; and consistency in measurement, verification and assessment standards.

Policy and practice in the UK needs to change if large-scale commercial property retrofit is to be rolled out successfully. This requires mandatory legislation underpinned by incentives and penalties for non-compliance.

This paper synthesises recent research to provide a set of policy and practice recommendations which draw on international experience, and can assist on implementation in the UK.

The author explains that both the 14.5 million population and the distance which Australia is from major publishing centres may account for the enthusiasm for new technology. Libraries in Australia were early users of minicomputers. A feature of these developments has been the growth in the country's telecommunications culminating in the introduction of MIDAS in 1979 and the use of online databases via Lockheed, SDC and OCLC. Access to databases within Australia is now achieved through AUSINET and CSIRONET. This has promoted library automation, which is here dealt with in three phases — Phase I relates to punched‐card systems; Phase II is characterised by the introduction of AUSMARC in 1971 and the establishment of the Australian MARC record service — under this phase are described the developments in systems for acquisitions, cataloguing, data entry, circulation control, and serials receipts; Phase III covers the shared systems and cooperative networks. The article ends by briefly surveying the future which seems largely dependent on the success of the National Library of Australia's development programme for hardware and software to provide a nationwide service.