COMPLIANCE
AEs and APs – Jacks of all trades but masters of none?
Andrew Poplett IEng, MIHEEM, an Authorising Engineer (W&V) with over 30 years’ healthcare estates management experience, and specialist knowledge of fire safety, water, and critical ventilation systems, discusses ensuring that hospitals and other healthcare facilities have a good mix of skills, knowledge, and experience available in such key disciplines via Authorising Engineers and Authorised Persons. He also warns against overburdening such personnel with an unrealistic workload.
This article has been produced to highlight the issues associated with the provision of resources and identified specific role holders for both Authorising Engineers (AEs) and Authorised Persons (APs) within healthcare premises. It is intended to stimulate debate, and readers are encouraged to submit their own thoughts and ideas on the topic through the IHEEM Ventilation Technical Platform, to canvas the opinions of the IHEEM community as to the issue, and the potential need to provide formal guidance or standards on the subject. The opinions set out are mine; they do not represent any formal position of IHEEM or any other professional organisation or society, but rather are intended to highlight a current and ongoing issue.
Issues due to staff and skill shortages Although the need for AEs and APs is generally well understood, and defined within many of the current HTM guidance documents, increasingly issues are arising due to staff and skills shortages that are seeing an evolving situation where the level of responsibility held by a small number of single technical professionals exceeds the practical limits of both their
Technical Area Decontamination Medical Gases
Ventilation (critical) Water Fire
Electrical (LV) Electrical (HV) Lifts/LOLLER
Pressure Systems Asbestos
Confined Spaces
Environmental/Energy /Carbon Reduction
Status HTM HTM HTM
Legal/HTM Legal/HTM Legal/HTM Legal/HTM Legal/HTM Legal/SHTM Legal
Legal/SHTM HTM
HTM 00 – Policies and Principles of Healthcare Engineering (2014) – outlines the role of an AE.
skills / knowledge levels and time availability. In this article I will therefore set out my standpoint on suitable limits for these roles, depending upon key influencing factors such as the size or complexity of both the roles and the healthcare setting in question.
Disciplines which may require an AE and AP Some roles have been specifically outlined either within legislation or Health Technical Memoranda (HTMs) (or both), while others are included in Figure 1, as they are known areas where a suitably qualified and experienced individual is either implied or required to provide assurance of compliance.
Comment
Not present in all healthcare settings Not present in all healthcare settings Not present in all healthcare settings Applies in all healthcare settings Applies in all healthcare settings Applies in all healthcare settings Not present in all healthcare settings Not present in all healthcare settings Not present in all healthcare settings Not present in all healthcare settings Not present in all healthcare settings Emerging priority and applies
in all healthcare settings Figure 1: Disciplines in healthcare facilities which may require an AE / AP. 16 Health Estate Journal March 2022
Classification of healthcare premises As should be clear from the above, not all healthcare sites will have all of the technical areas shown in Figure 1. However, the number and range of technical disciplines under the auspices of a healthcare engineering or healthcare estates team at any given healthcare facility is not the sole influencing factor in ensuring an effective AE/AP service provision. The size and complexity of the site has a significant impact on the remit and scope of the role. On this basis, the following classifications have been used to inform the recommended role limits: n Large acute or teaching hospital. n Medium multi-service or District General Hospital.
n Small multi-service or inpatient Community Hospital.
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