A private healthcare provider that already engages MAT FM to maintain all the operating theatres across its hospital network, with regular visits and 24/7 support, has awarded the company a contract to change the HEPA filters in 13 of its ultraclean theatres while they are not in use during the coronavirus pandemic.
The additional work will ensure the theatres are in peak condition when surgery resumes, with MAT FM set to complete the H13 and H14 HEPA filter replacement in all 13 by the end of June.
High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are a key component of an ultraclean operating theatre, and, as such, it is recommended they are changed every 3-5 years, depending on use. H13 and H14 filters are the highest efficiency grade HEPA filters available, and achieve the best filtration rates. They are said to remove at least 99.995% (H13) and 99.997% (H14) of particles from the air down to at least 0.3 microns in size, in line with the HTM 03-01 requirements. This micron size (0.3) is referred to by scientists as the ‘MPPS’, or ‘most penetrating particle size’, because particles of this size evade air filters more than larger or smaller particles.
(Xhead) Coronavirus and the private healthcare sector
In what MAT FM dubs ‘an unprecedented deal’, NHS England has block-booked ‘almost all the private hospital sector’s services and facilities’, and nearly 20,000 clinical staff, for the foreseeable future, to help cope with the ‘surge of patients’ resulting from the coronavirus outbreak. The company said: “This has secured 8,000 beds and 1,200 more ventilators. The extra capacity is not only to treat coronavirus patients, but also to help the NHS deliver other urgent operations and cancer treatments. However, many of the operating theatres – and there are over 250 theatres and critical care beds in London alone – will not be required, and will be temporarily closed.”
MAT FM offers a range of planned preventative maintenance service and support packages, and can also carry out ‘one-off’ repairs. Its nationwide team of engineers ‘ensures a speedy response to all service calls’. It stocks replacement parts for all ultraclean ventilation systems, alongside those for its own MAT ECO-flow range.
The company has also been busy supporting the NHS with modifications to its critical ventilation systems to create additional COVID-19 care area capacity, in line with the latest guidance from the Specialist Ventilation for Healthcare Society (SVHSoc). Its engineers are now helping to reinstate, balance, and validate those same areas to return them to their original ventilation duty and designed use.
