MEDICAL GAS SYSTEMS
been spearheaded by Business Systems manager, Matthew Sealy, and Professor Gaoyong Luo; the latter joined SHJ in 2008, and is also a Professor of Communications at both Brunel University in the UK, and Guangzhou University in China. An acknowledged expert in 21st-century communications technology – such as 5G, IOT devices, and edge computing – the Professor has also played a key part in developing and evolving K’nect. While the Empower and Evolution systems have proven a commercial success, SHJ says the new Enforce and Emanate systems, launched this year, offer significantly more functionality and processing power, taking advantage of edge computing and AI in a way the company believes will ‘revolutionise’ how medical gas systems in hospitals and other healthcare facilities are run – principally because they will be able to detect, very early, when plant begins running sub-optimally, and, in many instances, take corrective action automatically.
Stafford Scopes had explained, when I first met him, that the data on system operation, maintenance, and servicing that Enforce and Emanate provide will also be ‘far more comprehensive’, while the algorithms incorporated into Enforce will enable more ‘intelligent’ plant control based on ‘trending’ – harnessing AI. This will allow users to run their medical gas systems more efficiently, with greater reliability, and lower energy consumption. The new Emanate software, meanwhile, captures data from medical gas plant and uses AI, as SHJ puts it, ‘to make fast, reliable decisions’. In future, with the roll-out of 5G technology, and the faster associated data transmission speeds,
Medical air plant in SHJ’s production facility in Chesham.
coupled with increasing use of AI, edge computing, and IOT technology, SHJ believes there is no reason why a sizeable hospital’s medical gas systems should not be able to operate ‘virtually autonomously’.
Never standing still
Time and tide never, never stand still, however, and in the six months since my initial visit, the company had, I discovered, forged ahead with further innovations, including the addition of new functionality to the Customer Portal, and its ‘re-launch’ as K’nect. At this second meeting, senior team members were enthusiastic about the new portal, and the advanced
capabilities of the new Enforce and Emanate systems, but were equally keen to discuss what they feel makes the company stand out – design, installation, maintenance, servicing, and technical innovation-wise. Having met Stafford Scopes and SHJ’s Operations director, Phil Hudson, last year (the latter is a former NHS Estates and Facilities director), on this subsequent visit I also met several other key personnel, including Finance controller, Michael Anthony. He began our meeting by explaining that before joining SHJ just over a year ago, he had spent 27 years with Nestlé, mainly working at its UK manufacturing plants. A qualified accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor, he also acquired a number of useful ‘operational and logistical skills’ at the Swiss multinational, which he said were proving invaluable in his new role. He said: “Having originally focused our medical gas services very much on hospitals in south-east England, we at SHJ are now looking to significantly expand our reach and serve healthcare customers UK-wide.
Pre-empting the market’s requirements
“Alongside offering customers the benefits of K’nect,” he continued, “we believe we are pre-empting the market’s requirements with our harnessing of AI and edge computing. We also pride ourselves on the quality of the suppliers of our key components – obvious examples being the Kaeser compressors and Rietschle vacuum pumps we source from Germany. We can offer shorter lead times than many competitors too – typically of 4-6 weeks – while having our own assembly capability gives us ultimate control over the quality of the systems we ship out. We are fortunate that our pipeline of work is sufficient that we can use our assembly personnel to undertake servicing work as and when required.”
The Silicair medical air driers, which use ‘a special desiccant mix, which includes a substance used to convert harmful carbon dioxide from car exhaust fumes to CO2
20 Health Estate Journal April 2020 ’.
A ‘backbone’ of plant engineers Service manager, James Forgan, interjected: “We have a backbone of specialist plant and installation engineers who not only assemble new plant, but are also capable of everything from routine servicing to major overhauls. We currently have over 20 engineers covering the UK. We offer a guaranteed four-hour response time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in the event of breakdown or a problem the customer cannot fix.” Stafford Scopes had already explained that SHJ offers a five-year ‘no quibble’ warranty on all new plant. James Forgan added: “This demonstrates our complete confidence in the component parts of our systems, such as the HPC compressors, the Silicair driers, and our control systems. Our plant also has European Pharmacopeia compliance.”
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