MEDICAL GAS SYSTEMS
MES associate consultant, Brian Armstrong, in the manifold room at the new training centre.
undertake all sorts of practical training in a safe, purpose-designed setting, while delivering the associated ‘theory’ in our classroom.”
Competent Persons training Among the other training offered will be two-and a-half day Competent Person (Maintenance) and two-day CP (Installation) courses. Richard Maycock elaborated: “The latter will mostly be aimed at third-party installers. Today’s AP on a hospital site is largely a management role; the AP has to manage the medical gas system day-to-day, and if something goes wrong, is responsible for getting it fixed. The AP also looks after the Permit to Work system; nobody should work on a medical gas system without such a permit.” He continued: “The Competent Person, meanwhile, is generally a medical gas contractor that comes to site for plant maintenance and installation. There are some sites with their own internal CPs who do some of that work, such as plantroom checks and repairs to gas outlets.”
I asked Richard Maycock if establishing and equipping the new training centre had required significant investment. He said, with a touch of humour: “A fairly significant one for us certainly.” I wondered about the competition, especially on the training side. He said: “There are a few other training providers, but most of the other medical gas training providers deliver tuition on site. The Durham training centre will enable us to service the north of England and build our business in Scotland, and, due to the excellent train services to the city – for instance from Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, York, and Newcastle, it is easily accessible. We also have a corporate deal with Radisson Blue, whereby we can book delegates accommodation on the riverside in Durham, a World Heritage Centre.” Booking such accommodation, promoting and marketing the company’s training
46 Health Estate Journal August 2019
Guests in the brazing area of the plantroom on the day of the centre’s opening.
portfolio, and a variety of other course co- ordination and administrative work, will be the task of another recent recruit, and former BOC employee, Yvonne Hobson, MES’s Development & Training manager.
Equipping the training centre I wondered how much of the equipment for the new training centre MES had had to buy new. Richard Maycock explained that the plant is in fact a combination of new equipment and some surplus to hospital sites’ requirements, often following replacement with newer ‘kit’. He said: “We have also had some donations from specialist medical gas companies.” With Yvonne Hobson is in post, MES is now promoting its training offer more intensively. “In the next six months,” Richard Maycock explained, “we plan to recruit a second trainer in the south, to pick up some of courses, such as Porter and Nurse, and Designated Nursing Officer training.”
Richard Maycock and Brian Armstrong have high hopes for the new training centre, and while they have no firm plans in place yet, Richard Maycock admits establishing a similar facility in southern England is a possibility. He said: “We are already seeing considerable interest in courses at the new training centre, and have dates planned through 2019 and to the end of next March. One of our big selling points is the level of our experience and expertise, and our understanding of the challenges that on-site medical gas personnel face in hospitals.”
Understanding the challenges In recent years as an Authorising Engineer, Richard Maycock says the more work he has done, the more he has recognised the challenges that healthcare engineers face. He added: “This close working with on-site teams, and experience of the pressures they face, has, for example, enabled us to tailor the AP course MES offers to the requirements of the modern-day Authorised Person. It
meets the learning outcome criteria in HTM 02-01 guidance, but we have been able to ‘tweak’ it to question why we are covering certain subjects, and identify the key criteria in terms of addressing the complexities of the day-to-day AP role.”
Expertise being recognised Richard Maycock is proud that his team’s expertise is being recognised, and that recommendations and word of mouth have grown the business significantly. He added: “Another recent recruit is David Cooper, who joined us last July as our Medical design engineer. A specialist on AutoCAD systems, he undertakes retrospective audits and site surveys, and creates ‘As-fitted’ drawings’ for hospital medical gas pipelines. He was formerly a design engineer at Medæs, where he produced medical gas pipeline designs for new-build hospitals and extensions. I recruited him at BOC in 2006 to fulfil a similar role, and he joined MES last summer. Schematic drawings, and design flow calculation, validation, and verification, are among his other skills. If, say, a new- build hospital has been designed by a ‘generalist’ main contractor, we can look at its medical gas system design and check and validate it, on a Trust’s behalf, to ensure that it is compliant.
Strong take-up anticipated “Looking ahead,” Richard Maycock said as our discussion concluded, “we believe we will see strong take-up for the training we now offer in Durham, and it is great to havethe centre open and operational. On the day of the official opening we also hosted the 2019 AGM of IHEEM’s North- East Branch, and will be making the facility available to the Institute for further meetings at no charge. This is one of the ways we can give back to a sector where maintaining up-to-date engineering skills and competence are key to the safe, efficient running of hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and in turn to good patient care.”
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