MEDICAL GAS SYSTEMS
Training centre’s opening fulfils engineer’s ambition
Conscious that it can be difficult to conduct effective medical gas training on ‘live’ hospital sites, and particularly to simulate some of the potential problems that can arise without potentially impacting on the healthcare facility’s smooth running, Richard Maycock, an Authorising Engineer (MGPS), and the founder of medical gas pipeline services specialist, Medical Engineering Systems (MES), has recently opened his first dedicated training centre in Durham. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports, the new unit is fully equipped with a range of ‘live’ medical gas equipment, and, Richard Maycock believes, is one of only a handful of such facilities in the UK to offer hands-on medical gas training in a non-hospital environment.
Talking enthusiastically about the new training centre when I spoke to him by telephone recently, Richard Maycock said: “A big advantage of a training centre like this is that while undertaking effective medical gas training at a ‘live’ hospital site can be very difficult practically, those attending training courses at our new Durham facility will be able to experience all aspects of the operation and maintenance of a ‘live’ medical gas system – including commissioning – confident that their actions will have no impact on patients, or indeed on a hospital’s smooth running.”
A medical gas specialist with over 25 years’ experience, who gained his early training and expertise with Medæs before moving to BOC – where he created and developed the company’s medical gas engineer courses – Richard Maycock went on to explain that, having established his medical gas engineering business in 2016, demand for MES’s services has since significantly grown; the company now serves NHS Trusts and private healthcare providers throughout England and Scotland. Since setting up MES, Richard Maycock has primarily focused on providing AE services and on-site training for Designated Nursing Officers (DNOs), while his colleague, associate consultant, Brian Armstrong, has undertaken most
The new MES training facility in Durham was opened on 6 June by vice-chair and Council representative on IHEEM’s North-East branch, Alan Spraggon (centre) flanked (left) by MES’s Brian Armstrong and (right) by Yvonne Hobson and Richard Maycock.
of the remainder of the business’s training activity, again mainly at hospital sites. “With the Durham training centre now operational,” Richard Maycock explained, “Brian will be based there, developing a range of courses alongside other trainers.” MES will also continue to offer on-site training where healthcare customers require it. However, with the new centre equipped with a fully operational medical gas system, the company anticipates more and more customers wanting to send staff to Durham for training.
Comprehensively equipped with a range of ‘live’ medical gas equipment, the new MES training centre is located about a mile from the city’s train station.
A range of MGPS services Among the comprehensive range of medical gas pipeline system (MGPS) services that Medical Engineering Systems now offers are acting as a medical gas Authorising Engineer
(MGPS); ‘consultancy’; providing ‘As- fitted’ drawings; compliance audits, and offering a broad range of training. The company exclusively provides AE services to two leading private healthcare providers. Providing medical gas engineering services to the NHS and the private healthcare sector is – like many externally provided healthcare engineering disciplines – a competitive business, and I asked Richard Maycock what he felt made Medical Engineering Systems stand out. He said: “I would say our biggest strength is the many years’ collective medical gas experience and expertise that both I and my Training manager, Brian Armstrong, possess, including – in both our cases – with BOC.” Having been keen to open a dedicated medical gas pipeline training facility since
August 2019 Health Estate Journal 43
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