VENTILATION
Don’t let key equipment be ‘out of sight, out of mind’
Mike Dunne, Service and Aftersales Technical manager at Howorth Air Technology, discusses the company’s establishment and running of a dedicated CPD-accredited Ventilation Workshop, designed ‘to address the knowledge gaps’ among contractors and engineers, in both public and private healthcare organisations, ‘to help them fully understand the specific and detailed requirements of air ventilation systems’.
In 1961 Hugh Howorth – the son of James Howorth, an engineering pioneer that had vastly improved the air quality within the industrial setting of Greater Manchester’s milling and brewery industry – was summoned to Wrightington Hospital for a conversation with Professor John Charnley, a renowned orthopaedic surgeon. Professor Charnley was troubled by an issue he could not overcome. Seeing excessive post-operative infection rates, Professor Charnley commissioned Howorth Air Technology to provide a clean air ‘enclosure’ that would help to reduce the risk of surgical site infections (SSIs). The system that we developed radically changed the way orthopaedic surgery was conducted.
An underestimated relationship The relationship between ‘engineer’ and ‘clinical expert’ was formed, but it is one that has often been underestimated. At Howorth Air Technology, we believe this relationship is fundamental to the future success of the NHS and better outcomes for patients. During my time as a commissioning engineer, it had become increasingly apparent that the majority of clinicians and people working within the healthcare sector do not understand the principles behind the ultraclean ventilation (UCV) equipment that is being installed: how it works, why it is there, and how it should correctly be tested and validated. In 2019, just before the global pandemic,
Howorth Air Technology went back to its roots for an inspirational strategy that would support not only the healthcare sector, but all of the people that operate within it. We felt compelled as a business to address the knowledge gaps among contractors and engineers, in both public and private health organisations, to help them fully understand the specific and detailed requirements of air ventilation systems. Working with one of our largest customers – Spire Healthcare – we created a dedicated CPD-accredited Ventilation Workshop, available free of charge.
An ultraclean ventilation theatre.
One-day workshop At the start of 2022 we started rolling out the one-day workshop, making it available to anyone within our industry. In this article, I will explain the key issues
covered in the workshop, and how we are trying to strengthen and re-establish the relationship between engineer and clinical lead in this very niche and specialist area of engineering. The workshop addresses the following topics: n The history of Howorth Air Technology – the emerging relationship between engineer and clinical expert.
n HTM 03-01: Specialised Ventilation for Healthcare Premises: Part A – Design and Validation.
n HTM 03-01: Specialised Ventilation for Healthcare Premises: Part B
– Operational Management and Performance Verification.
n Capital installation considerations. n Live demonstrations of the UCV testing sequence in a fully functional operating theatre.
History of Howorth Air Technology The session starts by examining the world’s first ultraclean ventilation (UCV) system, ‘The ‘Greenhouse’, developed by Howorth Air Technology and donated to Wrightington Hospital in 1961. We track the development of the UCV system from the 1970s to the present day. We start with the engineering philosophy behind ‘The Greenhouse’: how it is assembled, and how our philosophy – based on protecting people – is still in use to this
February 2023 Health Estate Journal 49
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