IHEEM AE CONFERENCE 2023
healthcare water systems to get involved with the Platform.
Maz Daoud, Chair of IHEEM’s Fire Safety
Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey was the venue for IHEEM’s 2023 Authorising Engineers Conference in July.
finding they’ve been installed the wrong way around, or on air intakes, and simply acting as primary filters, where they don’t do well’. The VTP is also keen to cover other
‘serious areas’ guidance-wise, such as where environmental air sampling is taking place in hospitals for areas other than operating theatres. He explained: “So, we are looking to try to generate minimum microbiological safe limits for different clinical areas through ventilation linked to internal air quality research work ongoing. We’re also focusing on heat recovery, and where it can and cannot be applied. So, if you’ve got the PPVLs (positive pressure ventilation lobbies) or isolation rooms, we don’t want recovery on that exhaust air; patients are in isolation for a reason – we want to avoid cross-contamination or recirculation of potential pathogens.” The VTP Chair said the Platform was looking at publishing a number of papers in draft form over the next 3-6 months, and issuing them to its members. He encouraged all IHEEM members with an interest in ventilation to talk to Head Office, and apply to join the Platform as an associate member. He said: “You will be welcome, and then in a primary position to receive early drafts and make comments. Hopefully over the next 18 to 24 months we will fill some of the gaps identified following the publication of the latest
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version of HTM 03-01 and some of the other HBNs which – again – the VTP has been involved in commenting on.”
Desire to expand Water Technical Platform The next TP representative to speak was Paul Nolan, who explained that he had been asked to address delegates in place of the Chair of the IHEEM Water Technical Platform, Mervyn Phipps, who was unable to attend. He said: “We as a Technical Platform meet every quarter, and there are half a dozen members, but we want to expand this. Our primary function is to look at any applications, and whether there are any AEs coming through, as well as focusing on anything we can do to promote the AE role – because people like me will no longer be in post one day, and we will need people to replace us. We have also been focusing monthly on a particular subject; last month it was mycobacteria, in relation to the death of two female patients at Papworth Hospital in 2019.” He had, he explained, just competed 50 hours of CPD learning on mycobacteria. Paul Nolan said the Water TP also decided what subjects it would like to focus on in HEJ, and then asked volunteers to write the associated article, which was then peer reviewed prior to publication. He encouraged all with an interest in
Let’s say you want to put some new medical gas pipes through an existing fire compartment, but there has been work done in the location by some fire-stopper in the past and you don’t know which materials, or company’s materials, were used. In order to certificate that compartment again you’ve
got to rip it all out and start again, which is ludicrous. Maz Daoud, Fire Safety Technical Platform
32 Health Estate Journal September 2023
Technical Platform – for many years an ex- London Fire Brigade firefighter, and today National Fire Safety Lead at NHS England, was the next to discuss his Platform’s activities. He explained that the Fire Safety ‘TP’ had been in existence for ‘about five years’, and currently had six members. He said: “We have representation from Wales, and now also from Scotland, and also have a member who is Chair of NAHFO, the National Association of Healthcare Fire Officers, who we work closely with.” On visiting a ‘new’ Trust as its Authorising Engineer ‘4-5 years ago’, he had asked staff why they had dispensed with their previous AE (Fire), to ‘go with someone new’. He said: “The answer was: ‘Our previous Authorising Engineer was very good, but all he did was tell us what the relevant HTM or British Standards say. That’s not what we want – we can do that ourselves. We want someone who – when we encounter a problem – will explain the options.’” This was thus the ‘route’ the Fire Safety
Technical Platform had looked to pursue. Maz Daoud expanded: “There is the ideal perfect world, but the reality is probably somewhat different from this. So, our approach is that – somewhere in between, there’s a big area which can be deemed ‘well maybe it’s acceptable; maybe it’s not.” He continued: “Alison Ryan (IHEEM’s President, who had spoken earlier) mentioned legal requirements earlier, and fire safety has its own legislation formed around the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.”
‘As low as reasonably practicable’ Maz Daoud emphasised that the RRO’s key requirement is for the responsible personnel to reduce the risk of fire ‘to as low as reasonably practicable’ (ALARP). He elaborated: “So, for instance, fire safety equipment must be maintained in an efficient, working order, in good condition. The HTM doesn’t, however, insist you maintain it to the standards in BS 9999.” Against this backdrop, the Fire Safety Technical Platform has written three technical guides, which are on the IHEEM website – one of which is on fire dampers, focusing particularly on the maintenance of such devices. He asked: “How often do you need to maintain them?” He noted that while BS 9999: Code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings, ‘doesn’t specifically cover hospitals’, the standard does refer to fire damper maintenance, and had stipulated that electronic fire dampers should be checked every two years. He said: “On its revision in 2017, all of a sudden the recommended frequency changed from two to one year. We asked ‘Why’, and I telephoned one or two fire
Courtesy: The Jockey Club.
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