SUPPLY CHAIN
serious concerns still need to be addressed. This includes specifying and maintaining vital electrical infrastructure such as uninterruptible power systems, and cable management and lighting control solutions. Indeed, adherence to standards and legislation is vital in healthcare building design, where all decisions revolve around ensuring best possible patient and staff outcomes. But as no standardisation between trusts exists, achieving this regulatory compliance can be difficult. This lack of clarity on good practice in
areas such as backup power, lighting control, and cable management, could compromise hospital functionality, risk patient outcomes and keep operating rooms out of action. Fines, reputational damage, and legal liabilities may occur as a result. By contrast, multiple trusts working with the same supplier can provide added reassurance and efficiency to specification processes. This may not be possible when engaging numerous suppliers with competing products and potentially contradictory advice and can also lead to wasted time and effort from duplicating processes across multiple businesses and stakeholders. Simply put, there is a level of confidence and simplicity that can be provided with interlinked solutions from the same manufacturer which cannot be equalled when sourcing from multiple parties.
Regulatory reference points While the regulatory landscape governing hospitals and healthcare facilities is complex, certain legislation and standards prominently stand out around utility provision. For instance, the Health Technical Memorandum 06-01 (HTM) provides comprehensive advice and guidance on the design, installation and operation of specialised building and engineering technology used in the delivery of healthcare.3 Specifically, the memorandum covers
lighting control and their operational functionality (General Lighting point 15.74) and the ease-of-maintenance and future modification when specifying systems (General Lighting point 15.75). It also goes on to emphasise the importance of lighting circuits being unaffected by component failures (General Lighting point 15.76). Unchanged since 2017, this guidance provides a structured reference point for healthcare engineering, encapsulating best specification practices in a streamlined and accessible document. Consequently, it should be a key reference point for all decision makers involved in facility system selection and maintenance. Similarly, another standard was published last July after a long consultation process – BS 8644-1:2022 (Digital Management of Fire Safety
IFHE DIGEST 2024
Information Part 1). Its purpose was to digitise the code of practice concerning the flow and presentation of information relevant to fire safety, including handovers, asset management and emergency response measures. Crucially for healthcare facility engineers and consultants, these details will now be summarised within an easily accessible digital document that is part of the UK’s drive to provide a golden thread of information on this topic.
Staying updated during upheaval The HTM’s constancy contrasts with the changeability of standards governing fire safety design for buildings. For example, BS 7671:2018, the standard wiring regulations for electrical installations, was updated in May this year in how it applies to medical facilities. Specifically, a new regulation,
710.422.2.201, was added to Amendment 2 of the standard, which looked at the concept of ‘Protected Escape Routes’. It clarified that cables and other electrical equipment could be installed in protected healthcare facility escape routes if they meet two criteria. This included assurances that the facility itself complies with the HTM and healthcare fire safety guidance, and that the particulars of the electrical installation within the protected escape route are documented as part of a fire strategy.
While seemingly a small change within
the overall standard, this revision may cause confusion over best practice on consultant facility designs and facility team specification processes. With fire safety standards under constant scrutiny and review – especially post-Grenfell – it is crucial hospital decisionmakers and consultants are clear and confident about how any current and future updates may affect healthcare estate infrastructure. The same need for clarity applies in areas where specific standards may not
exist. For example, there is no requirement or product standard that manufacturers of metallic cable management systems and supports can test their products to or against for fire safety. Those involved in the specification of fire safety solutions and looking to better guarantee product performance may therefore be left with questions on fire ratings that cannot be easily answered without further research. However, hospital stakeholders with multiple demands and pressing facility issues to address should not be expected to look for more information to fill this blind spot. Instead, by leveraging the expertise of a sole supplier with extensive experience, these under-pressure professionals can be better reassured over component fire ratings and performance.
Guidance and partners Taking these time pressures into account alongside tightening budgets, it is understandable that value engineering has become the preferred approach to equipment specification among facility teams. Its aim – substituting materials, methods, and components with less expensive alternatives without sacrificing functionality – certainly appeals, but in a healthcare environment where many building occupants may be more vulnerable, even more careful consideration is required. While the urge to shop around for
reasonably priced hospital systems and controls is understandable, decisionmakers may not have the time. Instead, they should work closely with supply chain partners to ensure effective performance. The need to do so is further underlined by the NHS’s sheer scale, where the large number of trusts and hospitals makes establishing a standard approach to specification extremely difficult.
Minimising the supplier base can support a functional hospital compliant
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