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Medical gas specialist rewarded for its ‘outstanding response’
Awarded Healthcare Supplier of the Year 2021 at the 2021 Healthcare Estates IHEEM Awards, SHJ Medical Gas Specialists was rewarded by the judges for its 50 years of service to the healthcare industry, and particularly its ‘outstanding response’ to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Against the backdrop of the challenges of the lockdown for many manufacturers, SHJ staff worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, as requests for designing, installing, and maintaining medical gas systems ‘sky- rocketed’. The company said: “The pandemic also exposed significant flaws in oxygen management and pipeline systems. While hospitals were aware of VIE capacity and the amount of oxygen used over a period of time, there was no way to detect wards with a surplus of oxygen, or areas where oxygen was running low. We worked hard to resolve this issue and thus created FLO2
IHEEM
March 2022 Volume 76 Number 3
www.iheem.org.uk
JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF HEALTHCARE ENGINEERING AND ESTATE MANAGEMENT
Don’t spread expertise too thinly
In an interesting article on pages 16-18, Andrew Poplett IEng, MIHEEM, an Authorising Engineer (W&V) with over 30 years’ healthcare estates management experience, considers the responsibilities of, and indeed the expectations on, Authorising Engineers and Authorised Persons in healthcare. Both play a key role in the compliant and safe operation of vital hospital services such as water, medical gases, and electrical systems, especially given the increased focus on compliance in the past 5-10 years, both within the health service, and from external regulators. Te author is concerned, however, that
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Streamlining stock control via digital inventory
www.healthestatejournal.com
FC HEJ
Mar22.indd 3 17/02/2022 15:46 , a state-of-the-art oxygen
flow monitoring product which was highly commended at last year’s IHEEM Awards.”
SHJ says its response to COVID-19 not only exemplifies its commitment to installing and maintaining medical gas systems, but also demonstrates its desire to remain at the forefront of new technologies and innovation. SHJ’s in- house Research & Development team
is continuously striving to improve the healthcare industry using AI and IoT technologies. It said: “K’nect is the first and most advanced data portal in the medical gas industry. The portal is fully bespoke to each customer, and the encrypted data displayed is available 24 hours a day from any browser. Within K’nect, SHJ’s innovative Evolution technology has revolutionised the way hospitals monitor and react to medical gas alarms. Evolution offers a remote, multi- site 24/7 monitoring and alert service to offer peace of mind to hospital estate teams.” SHJ has further developed Empower and Emanate, which harness AI-driven techniques of medical gas plant control. Using real-time diagnostics, the products can ensure that medical gas plants are both safe and reliable, while also enhancing their productivity and efficiency. SHJ added: “Such technological advances in the NHS estate will enhance patient well-being and accelerate the delivery of a Net Zero NHS.”
SHJ Medical Gas Specialists Unit 4, Anglo Business Park Asheridge Road Chesham
Buckinghamshire HP5 2QA T: 01494 782168 E:
info@shj.co.uk www.shj.co.uk
while the need for such personnel, the skill and knowledge levels required, and their remit, are all well understood and set out in HTM guidance, staff and skills shortages are seeing some AEs and APs handed a level of responsibility which not only exceeds their practical skills and knowledge, but also the time available to them. In some cases, especially on large acute hospital sites, such is the complexity of the M&E services that – he maintains – even a seasoned AE can only reasonably be expected to maintain their important independent advisory role for perhaps 2-3 key disciplines if their skills and expertise are not to be spread too thinly. Authorised Persons, meanwhile, must not
only efficiently fulfil the responsibilities set out in HTM guidance, but also perform their ‘day job’ – as an operational healthcare estates officer / engineer, oſten with managerial responsibility. Tis, Andrew Poplett argues, ‘is not a situation that can reasonably be expected to be sustained given the current ageing and reducing workforce capacity’. To address these issues, he sets out a
suggested minimum number of post-holders to cover key disciplines such as decontamination, fire safety, electrical, medical gases, and ventilation, across a range of different-sized healthcare facilities. He acknowledges that if his proposed approach is accepted as a reasonable way to maintain compliance, it will necessitate a ‘significant increase in the professional staffing levels required to operate a healthcare facility’. While the views expressed are
Andrew’s own, he says he is keen to stimulate debate on the subject from HEJ’s readership, and to canvas views – including on the potential need to provide formal guidance or standards in this key area.
Jonathan Baillie,
Editor jonathanbaillie@
stepcomms.com
March 2022 Health Estate Journal 5
health estate journal
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