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HEALTH SECTOR NEWS
Wansbeck General installs ECO-flow Stealth UCV canopies
Medical Air Technology (MAT) has completed the second phase of work on a £5.5 m turnkey operating theatre refurbishment at Wansbeck General Hospital in Ashington, successfully commissioning and handing over Theatres 1-4 at the end of what the company says has been ‘a very rewarding job for all involved’. Two of the theatres are the country’s
first to feature MAT’s new ECO-flow Stealth, an ultraclean (UCV) screenless canopy that fits flush to the ceiling. MAT explained: “Its streamlined appearance and advanced performance are very much in line with current trends in operating theatre design. The UCV system works by drawing air to each corner of the room to control the airflow pattern and prevent entrainment. A key feature of the canopy is the use of remote fans, which enable it to achieve noise levels of just 49-53 dBA, easily meeting or exceeding the reduced level recommended in the recently revised HTM 03-01 (2021).” The
ECO-flow Stealth also has perimeter LED lighting that changes to indicate the status of the canopy. This aids ease of operation and maintenance, and improves patient safety. There are four different colours: Green = UCV mode. Amber = Conventional mode. Red = UCV fault. Blue = HEPA filter dirty. The canopy’s flush-to-ceiling design means there are no architectural clashes with other equipment such as lights and pendants. The new canopy also incorporates cruciform lighting, and ‘expert exponential airflow’ design that MAT says achieves outstanding ultraclean conditions. MAT completed the first phase of the
work at Wansbeck General Hospital – the upgrade of Theatres 5 and 6 – in 2021. When, part way into the construction of the new theatres in phase 2, the company offered Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust the new ECO-flow Stealth system as an alternative to the
Plastic film technology developed in Belfast shown to kill viruses
Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have developed a ‘ground- breaking’ plastic film that can kill viruses that land on its surface with room light. The self-sterilising film is claimed to be the first of its kind – it is reportedly low cost to produce, can be readily scaled, and could be used for disposable aprons, tablecloths, and curtains, in hospitals. It is coated with a thin layer of particles that absorb UV light and produce reactive oxygen species – ROS. The technology used to create the film also ensures it is degradable. The researchers said: “The
breakthrough could lead to a significant reduction in the transmission of viruses in healthcare environments, but also in other settings that use plastic films – for example, food production factories.” The team tested the film for antiviral activity using four different viruses – two strains of influenza A virus, a highly stable picornavirus called EMCV, and SARS2 – exposing it to either UVA radiation or with light from a cool white light fluorescent lamp. They found the film is effective at killing all of the viruses – even in a room lit with just white fluorescent tubes.
The research, published in the Journal
planned screened ECO-flow UCVs, it was happy to accept. With the ECO-flow Stealth and ECO-
flow screened canopies, the hospital’s theatres can now be run in both ultraclean and conventional theatre conditions, allowing for greater flexibility of use, and helping the Trust achieve its aim of increasing efficiency and minimising waiting times for elective treatment. Scott Muller, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and project lead, said that his surgical team’s jobs are ‘made much easier by having top-of-the-range facilities to work in’, and he thanked MAT for being ‘considerate and conscientious’.
New surgical hubs will ‘help to bust the COVID-19 backlogs’
of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology, was carried out by Professor Andrew Mills, Dr Ri Han, and Dr Christopher O’Rourke in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, and Dr Connor Bamford and Dr Jonathon D. Coey at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, at Queen’s.
Professor Mills said: “This film has the added value of being self-sterilising at no real extra cost. Through rigorous testing we have found it is effective at killing viruses with just room light – this is the first time anything like this has been developed, and we hope it will be a huge benefit to society.”
The project was funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council.
Over 50 new surgical hubs will open across England ‘to help bust the COVID-19 backlogs’, and offer hundreds of thousands more patients quicker access to vital procedures, former Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, announced on 26 August. The Department of Health & Social
Care says they will provide at least 100 more operating theatres and over 1,000 beds, explaining: “They will deliver almost two million extra routine operations to reduce waiting lists over the next three years, backed by £1.5 bn in government funding. This breaks down to over 200,000 extra procedures in 2022 to 2023, over 700,000 in 2023-2024, and 1 million extra procedures by 2024- 2025.” The hubs will focus mainly on high- volume, low complexity surgery, with particular emphasis on ophthalmology, general surgery, trauma, orthopaedics, gynaecology, ENT, and urology. Being separated from emergency services, surgical beds are kept free for patients awaiting planned operations, reducing the risk of short-notice cancellations, and improving infection control.
October 2022 Health Estate Journal 11
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