MEDICAL GAS SERVICES
Growing reputation paves the way for expansion
An Army-trained electrical and mechanical engineer whose father produced one of the first AGS receiving systems based on the BSRIA design commissioned by the DHSS, which was later incorporated into the British Standard, and who spent many boyhood hours turning and milling in his father’s factory, has seen his hard work, determination, and regular long hours in a 35-year career pay off. He and his business partner now manage and own four separate medical and industrial gas companies that provide services and expertise both across the UK and overseas. Expertise ranges from Authorising Engineer, Authorised Person, and Competent Person services, to help for healthcare estates teams with compliance, policies and procedures, and Permits to Work, plus expert system design, installation, and maintenance. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
When I met Rob McCrea at his home in the village of Cridling Stubbs near Knottingley in Yorkshire in mid-February, we spent an interesting couple of hours discussing his very interesting engineering career, beginning by focusing on his education. He admits he was something of a ‘tearaway’ at school, but a subsequent seven-year spell in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers – where he gained ‘an absolutely fantastic’ engineering training – gave him the self- discipline he needed, and also saw him deployed to a number of overseas postings. His time in the Army also imbued him with a drive and self- motivation, and a ‘lack of fear’ of difficult situations, which he says has stood him in excellent stead as he has forged a successful career. He developed his first interest in engineering ‘aged about nine’, working in his father’s factory. Harris McCrea had founded his own medical gas company, McCrea Engineering Services, near Luton, and after school, Rob was often required to lend a hand with production activities, gaining early experience of milling and turning. We subsequently moved on to talk through an interesting subsequent career in the medical gas field. With this February’s acquisition of Medical and Industrial Gas Services, which serves customers in a variety of industries, for example, supplying medical gas systems to laboratories and clinical applications, Rob McCrea and his business partner, Michael George, now own four medical and industrial gas companies: n Medical Gas Services, which offers Authorising Engineer, and Authorised and Competent Persons services; compliance surveys, and cylinder and compliance audits; pipeline system design; help with medical gas compliance; safety, nurse, and porter
Eastwood Park-trained
Rob McCrea (pictured) and his business partner, Michael George, now manage and own four separate medical and industrial gas companies that provide services and expertise both across the UK and overseas.
training, and medical gas pipeline system maintenance – including for ambulance services;
n HTM Authorising Services, which offers Authorising Engineer services to hospitals and other healthcare facilities;
n Medical and Industrial Gas Services, offering a range of medical and industrial expertise, and support and help with compliance, for applications ranging from the brewing industry to medical and pharmaceutical laboratories;
n Dental Air Services, which supplies medical air and compressors to dental surgeries.
Rob McCrea is an Eastwood Park-trained Authorising Engineer and an Authorised Person (MGPS), as well as an expert witness for arbitration cases and dispute solutions for a counterpart medical gas pipeline specialist, Medical Gas Pipeline Systems. He and Michael George pride themselves on the quality of the various companies’ service – which he attributes largely to their business ethos, and their belief in giving customers the best, and the calibre of their staff. John Rhodes, for instance, the managing director of HTM Authorising Services, is a highly experienced electrical engineer with a BEng Honours Degree in Electronic Systems & Control Engineering. Also a PRINCE 2 Foundation & Practitioner, he previously spent 33 years in NHS engineering, capital projects, and estates and facilities management roles, holding senior positions including senior engineer, deputy director of Estates & Facilities, head of Estates, head of Capital Projects, and director of Estates & Facilities, at NHS Trusts in in Yorkshire, Cumbria, Tyneside, and County Durham.
Appointment to the IHEEM AE Register
Earlier this year, Medical Gas Services and HTM Authorising Services got a further boost when John Rhodes’ considerable medical gas and engineering expertise were recognised with his appointment to the IHEEM AE Medical Gases Register. Rob McCrea told me: “We have always hand-picked our staff, and have always looked for individuals with really good hands-on engineering knowledge and expertise gained in the field, for which there really is no substitute. With February’s acquisition of Medical and Industrial Gas Services, we now possess an unrivalled range of expertise in all
May 2020 Health Estate Journal 61
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