A recent webinar hosted by the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES) in partnership with IHEEM examined ‘the threat posed by dirty ductwork’ in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, with one of the key participants and organisers, Dr Ghasson Shabha, senior lecturer at Birmingham School of the Built Environment, arguing that such facilities are ‘struggling to contain airborne infections transmitted via poorly maintained ventilation and air conditioning systems’.
Ewen Rose, vice-chairman of the CIBSE/ASHRAE Group, and a member of the CIBSE Patrons steering committee, who acted as ‘moderator’, reports.
According to Dr Ghasson Shabha, a regular contributor to Health Estate Journal who co-ordinated the staging of the recent webinar, one of the main contributors to airborne infection spread via poorly maintained ventilation and air conditioning is the fact that ‘the threat’ posed by dirty ductwork is often overlooked by healthcare professionals. The indoor air quality specialist told the webinar that a number of those responsible for the upkeep, maintenance, and safe and effective and operation of such key building services, including healthcare estates managers and engineers, ‘regularly fail to put planned maintenance strategies in place because the source of the infections is out of sight and thus out of mind’.
An incubator of infection
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