IHEEM AE CONFERENCE 2023


Graeme Dunn said the ‘big hit’ for medical gases had been the COVID pandemic, adding that the Medical Gases Technical Platform had been ‘quite active’ in producing AP guidance then.


with regard to the installation of cables into protective escape routes in hospital environments.”


Contributions to revised HTMs Mark Richards said the Electrical Technical Platform had also contributed to HTM 06- 02 and HTM 06-03, with several members making contributions to those two guidance documents, which the Platform hoped would be published around this month (September). He said: “It’s taken us two years to go through them – they are reflective of each other, and we needed to make sure they are correct. They were last updated in 2006, so we’ve had a lot of work to do.” The Platform is also leading on the technical proposals for BS7671 as regards the new regulations due out in 2026, and is looking for volunteers and technical proposals from its membership to put forward to the BSI committees to make changes to BS7671 regarding healthcare. One of the changes the ETP is looking at concerns testing and inspection of operating theatres. Mark Richards added: “We also like to engage our membership on any furtherance of electrical requirements within the healthcare estate, so we are continually looking for volunteers and – as Chair of the AE Registration Board for the electrical side, I’d like to see more electrical AEs come through.” Alison Ryan, IHEEM’s current President, who is also Chair of the Institute’s new Mechanical Technical Platform (HEJ – August 2023), was the next TP representative to speak. She explained the she has a mechanical engineering background, and is keen to hear what those working in the field are looking for in terms of new topics and key and emerging technologies – as she put it, ‘perhaps aspects that you don’t think are well covered by the other Technical Platforms’, e.g. battery storage and EV charging. She said: “I am essentially launching the new Technical Platform, so


Mark Richards said the Electrical Technical Platform had also contributed to HTM 06-02 and HTM 06-03, with several Platform members contributing to these two guidance documents.


am very keen to hear others’ views.” The next to speak was Brian Kirk – the Chairman of the Decontamination Technical Platform, which he explained was ‘the Authorising Engineers (Decontamination) group’. He said: “There are 29 of us registered, and we tend to limit the membership to the 29 registered AE(D)s to make it work efficiently.” Members were – he explained – a mix of mechanical and electrical engineers, but also chemists, pharmacists, and microbiologists, because decontamination is ‘such a multidisciplinary area’. Brian Kirk said: “Most of the members are active in healthcare, but we also have a few registered AE(D)s active in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, but also members of supplier organisations; it is a broad church. We are just about replacing ourselves as members retire, and registering new people. In the last couple of years, we’ve had three or four new registrants, and we’re about to interview for three more very shortly, but we’ve in fact had the same number retiring, so we have the same problem as everybody – we need more people.” Moving to discuss some of the DTP’s


current ‘projects’, Brian Kirk explained that a medical device called the phaco handpiece provided a real challenge in terms of sterilisation. He elaborated: “Accordingly, there are three of us working on some guidance on how to ensure that these devices are properly decontaminated, particularly at the sterilisation stage. Once the paper is complete, we hope to be able to publish that as an IHEEM guidance document. There is also,” he continued, “an audit tool which we have developed with the endoscopists – the JAG audit tool – which Graham Stanton has continuously updated, since ideas and standards change. Coupled with that is the digitisation of that tool, so people will have access to an app that they can fill in as


Discussing some of the current issues for the Decontamination Technical Platform, Brian Kirk said that a medical device called the phaco handpiece ‘provides a real challenge in terms of sterilisation’.


they go around doing their audit, which will be available to registered AEs. We’re also talking about having a pre-audit tool, which will be available to Trusts before they go through a full audit.”


A ‘basic guide’ The DTP – Brian Kirk explained – is also working with an interdisciplinary professional group to devise what he and his fellow professionals dub the ‘MAC Manual’, although it wouldn’t be thus known – a basic guide to decontamination of medical devices. He said: “Several sections will be hosted on the Central Sterilising Club website, hopefully with free access to anybody that wants a grounding in decontamination.” The Platform is also in the middle of reviewing its education framework to try and encompass some more pharmaceutical aspects of decontamination – particularly in the pharma sector, where ‘a bit of a shortfall in training’ had been identified – ‘especially for those who test sterilisers in the pharmaceutical sector’. Brian Kirk said: “A couple of our members operate in that sector, and have identified the gap, so we hope to be able to extend our education framework to include more pharmaceutical testing.” He added: “There is also some discussion around CPD for APs and CPs, and potentially moving that to a registration process Finally, during the COVID epidemic, we drafted some guidance on the reprocessing of respiratory masks, to give people some pointers on the technology that can be used, and some of the pitfalls.” With this, Eddie McLaughlan thanked all


the session’s Technical Platform speakers, acknowledged there was a ‘great deal of work going on’ within the various disciplines, and noted that in the limited time available the speakers had really only been able ‘to touch on the highlights’. He then opened up the session for questions.


September 2023 Health Estate Journal 35


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120