ENGINEERING GOVERNANCE
Ensuring competence across key engineering roles
Following IHEEM’s work to strengthen and promote the role and importance of professional development and independent AEs across all its specialist engineering platforms, members highlighted the urgent need to actively support the development of AP and CPs. IHEEM’s Decontamination Technical Platform is now piloting a programme in Wales aimed at directly supporting such personnel. John Prendergast, an IHEEM- registered AE(D) leading the pilot, discusses the wider issue of engineering governance in healthcare facilities, and ongoing work to ensure that engineers at all levels are competent.
Engineering governance is a requirement to support the various healthcare services/ sectors across the United Kingdom (both public and private sector). One of the real concerns as regards governance is that engineering issues in hospitals and other healthcare facilities need to be addressed in accordance with relevant HTMs and standards. Equally, good governance needs to clearly establish and present the specification for the competency levels of the personnel responsible for the environment and equipment. This is becoming ever more complicated and technical. Historically, hospitals and manufacturing plants have had engineers on site, trained and educated through industrial apprenticeships, with high skill levels, and - in the case of the former - able to maintain all the types of plant that hospital Estates teams and departments are responsible for. Today, however, a number of important questions arise, including: 1 Currently the various HTMs in use across the UK specify defined levels of accountability – from the CP(D) to the AE(D). Are engineers at all these levels trained and educated appropriately to conduct their tasks?
2 Do they have experience and appropriate skill levels and knowledge for the job in hand?
3 Should there be a base level requirement for engineers undertaking service, breakdown, and validation activities? Are they trained appropriately in mechanical or electrical disciplines in accordance with health and safety requirements?
4 HTM 2010 and other historical publications have presented guidelines on the educational standards and experience needs for healthcare engineers; should there be similar guidance for all, with recommendations instated today?
In parallel, and as with other industries, the NHS, support service providers,
Poor engineering, leakage, and poor cable management.
and commercial manufacturers – e.g. businesses operating in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors, are currently finding significant skill shortages, in terms of many engineers who work on equipment. Experience is highlighting a huge variance both in the performance standards and understanding of engineers appearing within healthcare premises to conduct the designated tasks and work. Where, though, does the problem lie? Some of the key factors include: n A lack of education standards at the outset of work. (e.g. apprenticeships or college courses).
n Insufficient Continuing Professional Development.
n Engineers taking job opportunities outside their skills matrix, often with no apprenticeship to support the basic theories of engineering.
n Training structures within the healthcare sector not aligned to current demands and equipment.
n Lack of supervision or competency assessment by estate and facility
management personnel. Often this is because of the lack of an AP(D), or no communication with the AE(D).
n Organisations seeking the cheapest solution, without considering quality or consistency of service.
n Insufficient evidence presented to clients to confirm competencies.
n Competencies that may not include specific activities shown in the generic CP(D) role – e.g. a maintenance engineer with no validation experience, or vice versa.
Where is the current drive? The current issues around competency are possibly due to a combination of the above, plus the generic problem that the engineering industry does not promote technical apprenticeships as it did in the past. Recent years have seen a drive to promote such development, but will it focus on the core technical skills our sector needs, or should the decontamination industry look at improvements from within? HTM 00 specifies that competent
February 2024 Health Estate Journal 39
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