PANDEMIC RELIEF EFFORTS
Oxygen concentrators sent to help hospitals in India
Three of eight oxygen concentrators specially assembled in Northern Ireland at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave have recently been flown to India on an Antonov An-124, one of the world's largest cargo planes, in order to help hospitals struggling with oxygen supply as the number of cases in the Asian country surges. Nigel Keery, Eur.Eng, FIHEEM, Head of Estates Operations at Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, which manufactured and assembled the concentrators for use by the Trust and other healthcare providers in the region, explained to HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, how he and colleague, George McCracken MIHEEM, a number of fellow healthcare engineering professionals, and several specialist sub-contractors, masterminded the preparation and transport of three of the units housed in 40ft containers to Belfast International Airport for dispatch to Delhi.
The eight oxygen concentrators – Nigel Keery explained when I spoke to him by phone on the Monday 10 May following the departure of three to Delhi – were originally ordered for Northern Ireland’s Department of Health (Health and Social Care Northern Ireland – HSCNI). The Belfast Health & Social Care Trust Estates & Facilities team made the decision to manufacture its own concentrators at the behest of HSCNI after ‘weaknesses in oxygen delivery and infrastructure’ had been identified at a number of hospitals in the region last Spring following a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. As Head of Estates Operations at the Trust, Nigel Keery and the staff reporting to him have overall responsibility for estates and engineering activities at a number of hospitals and other healthcare facilities across Belfast – the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast City Hospital, the Mater Infirmorum Hospital, Musgrave Park Hospital, Muckamore Abbey Hospital, Knockbracken Healthcare Park, and North & West and South & East Belfast community and social care facilities. “In fact,” he explained, “about 50 per cent of Northern Ireland’s healthcare estate comes under the auspices of Belfast Health & Social Care Trust.”
Joint decision
The IHEEM Northern Ireland Branch Council representative went on to explain why, following a joint decision by the Trust and Northern Ireland’s Department of Health in late March last year to supplement existing oxygen capacity in the region, he and his team decided to opt for oxygen concentrators. He said: “Northern Ireland doesn’t make any oxygen of its own; it all comes in from the Republic of Ireland. With some of the potential transport issues entailed in bringing in additional supplies from
Nigel Keery at the arrival of the UK medical relief flight to India.
Dublin, it was a concern, if worst case happened, that the Republic of Ireland had first call on available oxygen from there, and in the middle of this, we had the uncertainty of leaving the EU under Brexit, with border uncertainty. We thus had to look at how we could best supplement existing oxygen capacity not only at our own Trust’s hospital sites, but also at others across Northern Ireland. We traditionally use VIEs, with our oxygen delivered in liquid form, but, for the aforementioned logistical reasons, and as was the case at many other hospitals across the UK and globally, the existing delivery systems were not able to meet the predicted demand surge. We knew that the programme to enhance the existing liquid systems with scarce additional
equipment would take just over a year – time we didn’t have, and it was thus clear that we needed to look at alternatives.”
Lack of concentrator availability Thus, in late March and early April of 2020, Nigel Keery and his team began making enquiries about oxygen concentrators to manufacturers of such equipment all over Europe, but were initially told there were none available. He said: “After further discussion, we discovered that in fact we could get parts, but that there was a lack of production capacity, so we explored potentially assembling a number of concentrators ourselves. That said, none of the manufacturers had the resources at the time to help us with assembly, other than
June 2021 Health Estate Journal 39
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