INF ECTION P R EVENTION


spaces, it may be dominant. Professor Noakes suggests that in a hospital context it is not necessarily the obvious patient wards that will be most affected as these tend to be better ventilated. Instead, infection prevention control teams need to also think about ventilation in smaller, more-relaxed environments such as staff restrooms, waiting areas, corridors and treatment rooms.


“Hospitals need to consider where they are ventilating and what impact this has on a particular space,” Professor Noakes said. However, mechanical ventilation is not provided in the standard specification of modular buildings. Compliance with the current standard HTM 03-01 simply means that the supplier has met the minimum standards required. In addition, as with any natural ventilation method, the air flow and air change rates cannot be guaranteed because they are subject to external factors such as wind speed and direction. Ventilation systems are complex solutions; their impact depends on the type of technology and, critically, how it is deployed. The risks faced by healthcare workers treating patients with viruses that can be transmitted through the air are also highlighted by research published in August 2020 by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Researchers from University Hospitals


of Leicester NHS Trust in the UK and Turku University of Applied Sciences in Finland examined these risks and how different forms of ventilation can protect staff who are treating patients in hospital isolation rooms. The study, called Reducing aerosol infection risk in hospital patient care, was commissioned by IOSH because, while the risks to frontline healthcare workers when caring for patients with viruses are well


known, less is known about the optimal design of mechanical ventilation systems. The aim was to see how risks could be reduced by an engineering control approach of optimising ventilation methods. Dr. Julian Tang, a consultant virologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and an honorary associate professor at the University of Leicester, argues that: “The most-effective form of control is the


APRIL 2021


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