St John and St Elizabeth Hospital in North London is one of the country’s largest independent charity hospitals. Inspired by its deeply cherished Catholic ethos, the private hospital, which was founded in 1865, offers an extensive range of specialist outpatient clinics and more than 60 private rooms. Its charity status comes from the fact that it also funds St John’s Hospice, which is located on the same site. The hospice provides free in-patient, day care, and community care to people living within its wide catchment area – every year it supports more than 4,500 patients and families across seven London boroughs.
The New Wing
In 2018, work began on a brand new three-floor wing for the main hospital, marking an exciting stage in its growth. At £35m, the project is the largest investment made in the hospital to date and provides the latest and most advanced amenities and technology for staff and patients. The long list of facilities contained within the wing includes six operating theatres, an endoscopy unit, a day-case department with ensuite facilities, upgraded Urgent Care and Critical Care units, a dedicated staff and consultant training area, and a patient-focused admissions lounge.
Four New UCV Operating Theatre Suites
Medical Air Technology (MAT) was brought into the operating theatre element of the project directly by the hospital, whose estates and clinical teams wanted four of the six new theatres to be built around its energy-efficient ECO-flow™ ultraclean ventilation (UCV) system. UCV enables hospitals to offer a wider range of surgeries, including orthopaedics, and plays an important role in the integrated delivery of theatre services.
The ECO-flow ™canopy creates a clean zone around the surgical table and clinical team. It uses controlled airflow to filter-out particles from the supplied air, dilute contaminated air, and prevent the entry of contaminated air from outside the theatre. This results in a much better outcome for the patient, as it dramatically reduces the risk of surgical site infection (SSI). The use of a UCV or laminar flow strategy for orthopaedic surgery is specified in HTM 03-01 Specialised ventilation for healthcare buildings.
The ring-within-a-ring design of the Merivaara Q-Flow LED operating lights fitted by Bender UK as part of the equipment package in each of the theatres at St John and St Elizabeth Hospital ensures that the specialist airflow provided by the ECO-flow™ canopy is not interrupted and infection prevention compromised.
A Specialist Contractor
MAT designs, manufactures and installs bespoke critical ventilation systems and turnkey project solutions for new build and refurbishment projects. As a specialist contractor with many years’ experience, we are passionately committed to improving patient protection and end-user safety in demanding clinical, research and drug production arenas. We have extensive experience of working in live environments and understand the challenges around delivering a project within an operational scenario.