How is the Welsh Government improving ventilation in Welsh hospitals?
NHS Shared Services Partnership – Specialist Estate Services (NWSSP-SES) is supporting Welsh Government in providing engineering scrutiny in business case/design submissions from the Health Boards including ventilation systems to ensure they are compliant with current guidance. NWSSP-SES also provide support and guidance to the Health Boards around ventilation related matters, including siting on the Ventilation Safety Groups, appointing Authorised Persons to safely manage the ventilation systems and carrying out audits to confirm how well the ventilation systems are managed.
The Ventilation Safety Groups were advised to survey their existing ventilation systems, to determine their existing performance against current guidance, and identify any shortfalls as part of the Infection Prevention Control (IPC) Hierarchy of Control measures. As a direct result of these surveys a variety of ventilation improvements have been completed.
NWSSP-SES engineers also carry out full validations on critical ventilation systems when they are first installed. They also carry out critical ventilation plant verifications on an annual basis for Health Boards.
The Welsh Government’s Nosocomial Transmission Group in conjunction with NWSSP- Specialist Estates Services (SES) provided updated guidance on ventilation in general hospital areas in Wales under cover of a Specialist Estate Services Notification 21/22 Operational guide for the transition of healthcare environments in preparation for Autumn/Winter 2021/22 incorporating COVID - 19 Measures.
Various initiatives have been taken across the health board estate improving ventilation in high-risk areas. These include the installation of additional equipment such as heat recovery ventilation plant, air purifiers (HEPA) etc following discussions and approval from the Ventilation Safety Group.
Welsh Government also provided additional capital funding in 2021-22 from the Estates Funding Advisory Board. This was managed by NWSSP-SES and included £10million for Infrastructure projects, enabling Health Boards to bid for funding to cover the upgrade of infrastructure including ventilation.
Work is ongoing with the rest of the UK NHS (including representatives from SAGE) around air purifiers, to validate their effectiveness in the healthcare setting. Trials on the use of air purifiers in NHS Wales are being undertaken by three of the health boards to validate their effectiveness before recommending their wide scale use within the healthcare environment.