Whipps Cross hospital is a large general hospital and one of four major hospitals operated by Barts Health NHS Trust; the others are The Royal London, St Bartholomew’s, and Newham. The Trust provides healthcare services for 2.3 million east London residents.
On this particular Barts Health NHS Trust project, Bender UK worked with Medical Air Technology (MAT), which designed the theatre and recovery room services. MAT provided a full HTM 03-01 compliant critical ventilation, controls and specialist equipment package, including an ECO-flow ultraclean ventilation canopy.
Bender UK designed and installed all the critical care power and supplied and commissioned Merivaara Q-Flow LED surgical lights and a new CP924 glass theatre control panel.
The distinctive circular Merivaara lights work effectively with ECO-flow ultraclean canopies, enabling an uninterrupted flow of clean air over the operating table - protecting the patient from airborne infection and improving post-operative recovery rates. The lights deliver market leading R9 99 and R13 99 colour rendering and offer unique shadow reduction properties.
During the design phase, the team had to deal with space constraints. Bender UK overcame this by engineering a bespoke power solution that delivered resilient Group 2 medical IT power (IPS) and uninterruptible power (UPS) that served the operating theatre and 4-bed recovery room.
It incorporated split modular medical IT Power, designed with remote transformers and separate wall mounted distribution boards installed local to the theatre. The power system has both floor and wall mount 8kVA IPS units, incorporating EDS, 12 MCBs and flush-mount fully programmable remote alarm panel (MK243OS-11). A 20kVA 1:1 UPS rated at 20 kVA for 60 minutes, including HTM 06 01:2017 compliant battery array, completed the resilient critical power provision.
Inside the theatre, Bender installed a CP924 theatre control panel with a remote PLC interface box outside the area, which means maintenance can be carried without compromising theatre availability or infection control.
The glass touchscreen is intuitive for clinical staff to use, while delivering significant benefits in terms of easy cleaning and infection control. A 42-inch DICOM compliant PACS with glass fascia, membrane keyboard and medical PC was also installed.
MAT’s ECO-flow ultraclean ventilation (UCV) system is a proven and effective way to clean the air in operating theatres, dramatically reducing the risks of surgical site infection (SSI). When used in combination with pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative measures, UCV plays a critical role in the fight against infection.
Inigo Contract Services Ltd was the main contractor on the design and build project. The original 1950s built two-storey annexe at the hospital housed operating theatres 1 and 2 on the first floor, with a plant room above. An 18-week programme saw the team working extraordinary hours to ensure the project was delivered on time and to budget, to provide urgently needed facilities for the hospital.
Glenn Reynolds led the project for Inigo Contract Services. He explained: “The location of the theatres in an annexe made access to the working area easier, but we were constrained by the fact that the ground floor was still in daily use, and that meant shutdowns of power or other services had to be carefully timed so that they did not interfere with clinical activity.
“Working on a live hospital site during the pandemic presented other challenges, but everyone on the project was conscious of the important work we were undertaking to support the NHS and rose to those challenges to complete the project on schedule for handover in December 2020.”
Rob Speight, Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities at Whipps Cross Hospital, commented: “We are always looking for better and more efficient ways and technology to help improve patient care and outcomes and we are pleased to have collaborated with Bender UK in providing these innovative features as part of our service upgrades. The project has been a great success and a testament to the professionalism displayed by Bender UK, MAT, Inigo Contract Services and all of the companies involved in the project.”
Bender UK is the exclusive supplier of Merivaara Q-Flow LED theatre lights for the UK and Republic of Ireland, partnering with MAT to deliver turnkey theatre solutions incorporating UCV canopies.
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