MEDICAL GAS PIPELINE SYSTEMS
easier to obtain, but as the load increases, the generator has to work harder, and lower purity is a consequence. This is acceptable for patient use, as the impurities are not significant. In fact the new plant’s installation resulted in Charing Cross Hospital having two different oxygen products conforming to two separate European Pharmacopiea Monographs. Having taken advice from its Chief Pharmacist, The Trust was happy to accept these constraints, and understood that, while switching between the two products was acceptable, mixing the two was not an option.
As no 93% back-up cylinders were available, other options had to be considered. An automatic manifold was fitted with two banks of 10 cylinders of 99%. In addition, a new 54 mm main was installed to link the 99% supply in the event of an extreme emergency. This was double valved and double locked off.
Medical gas alarms
The oxygen concentrator plant and the emergency standby cylinder manifold systems were both connected to plant and local alarms. The plant alarms were repeated at the 24-hour manned security base, Marjory Warren Ward, and SHJ’s K’nect portal. The units are monitored remotely by SHJ, where a predetermined response has been set up to automatically despatch a service engineer to site in the event of a problem.
Successful outcome
A team including engineers from the Trust, SHJ, project managers, ETA Projects, and supplier, Atlas Copco, began sourcing all the plant, pipelines, and electrical supplies required at the beginning of April. Working around the clock, seven days a week, engineers
than a larger one, which would also offer greater resilience. I would recommend going for the highest specification available, as the units are not always able to run at 100% capacity. Equally, since concentrators can have issues at extremes of ambient temperature, they are ideally better installed within the hospital building if possible. If not, then a containerised solution can work well, but the insulation and ventilation need to be carefully considered. It is also vital to ensure that the works are completed and certified in accordance with the requirements of HTM 02-01.”
The future
The container-sized plant room solution strategically located adjacent to the oxygen load.
were able to begin Quality Control pharmaceutical testing less than four weeks later. The plant was operated under trial load conditions for three days prior to being connected to the hospital’s medical gas pipeline system. On the last day of April, final QC testing verified that oxygen production met the requirements of the European Pharmacopeia Monograph 2455 and ISO 10083 for Oxygen 93 (oxygen purity of 93% +/- 3%). The new system went into service at 4 pm that day.
Recommendations
SHJ Medical Gas Specialists said: “The Charing Cross oxygen concentrator project was an astonishing engineering feat given the constraints and the timescales. As one team member put it, ‘We completed two years of infrastructure work in two months’.”
Shane King, head of Estates Operations at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, says that he would advise anyone in similar circumstances to consider carefully the type of concentrator they choose. He said: “Depending on the plant space available, it may be better to choose two smaller oxygen concentrator units rather
SHJ added: “Oxygen concentrators are ideal for field use where delivery of liquid oxygen is not a practical option. Due to the amount of wasted nitrogen and the electricity required, however, they are expensive to run, although they don’t attract the costs and emissions associated with bringing oxygen on site. They offer resilience during a situation of disaster or threat, although their reliance on electricity presents a single point of failure in locations with infrastructure challenges. “Nevertheless, they certainly provide a viable emergency back-up solution to crises such as the one that faced Charing Cross Hospital in March. There has been considerable interest in this project from other UK hospitals as the NHS considers how best to prepare for a potential ‘second wave’ of COVID-19 later in 2020 and into 2021.”
1 Air compressors 2 Refrigerant air dryers 3 Carbon bag filters 4 Compressed air receiver 5 Oxygen concentrator/
Pressure swing adsorber towers 6 Oxygen receiver
Figure 1: The layout of the concentrator plant within the container. 40 Health Estate Journal October 2020
Firm’s first ever customer By way of background, Stafford Scopes, managing director of SHJ Medical Gas Specialists, whose father, Ronald, founded the business in 1967, explained that one of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s other hospitals, Hammersmith Hospital was, in fact, the company’s first ever customer, and that SHJ had provided medical gas pipeline services to the Trust ever since. He said: “In those days Imperial was not a five hospital Trust; Hammersmith Hospital thus joined us as a customer as a single hospital, and thereafter St Mary’s, Charing Cross, Queen Charlotte’s, and the Western Eye Hospitals became clients, and then of course, the Trust was formed. We provide the majority of the Trust's medical gas pipeline services, including regular planned preventative maintenance visits, installation work, and servicing of its plant. The Trust also uses our Evolution medical gas alarm system, and our K’nect portal, for its medical gas records and data.” Moving to how the oxygen concentrator project came about, Stafford Scopes said he visited the Charing Cross Hospital site in early March to talk through how to address a major increase in oxygen demand. He said: “At the time, SHJ was so
©Estates and Facilities Management Dept, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
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