Specialist contractor Thermal Transfer (TT), a subsidiary of ETDE, has completed a £4.5 million turnkey package for a new sterile services decontamination supercentre in West Yorkshire.
B. Braun Sterilog UK is an independent provider of decontamination services for the NHS and has gained a 15 year Pathfinder contract to provide these services to three hospital trusts in the Bradford, Leeds and Huddersfield areas from a state-of-the-art facility in Pudsey, near Leeds.
A local warehouse was purchased and TT’s Glossop head office was awarded a contract for the total refurbishment of the structure, including the design, procurement and installation of the mechanical and electrical services, the build and validation of a cleanroom and associated areas, process equipment, security and all site amenities.
The cleanroom and associated rooms had a 3600 m² area on the ground floor comprising duplex lines of dirty goods-in lobbies, decontamination - rooms with through-the-wall multi chamber wash disinfectors, inspection and packing rooms. These rooms form the cleanroom which has a classification of ISO 8. Here all items are reassembled and repacked in a gowned environment using automated loading and unloading systems, for feeding by conveyors into seven steriliser/autoclaves. After processing, the clean items are placed on racks prior to despatch.
TT’s Process Division designed, installed and validated a new clean steam generation and distribution system for use by the autoclaves. Water for the six multi-washers and two steam generators was supplied from a new RO (reverse osmosis) water plant. All the process equipment was subject to DQ/IQ/OQ validation.
Also on the ground floor is an associated plant room including the clean steam generation, RO water unit and air handling plant complete with HEPA grade air filtration. Two packaged air-cooled chillers, which provide cooling for the AHU cooling coil and steriliser plant, are located externally. No work has yet been undertaken on the upper floor, as this is earmarked for future development.
Richard Greenwood, technical manager at B Braun Sterilog said: “We are delighted to have worked with TT on this prestigious design and build project here in West Yorkshire. The super centre is now in full production and we are working with TT on further state-of-the-art facilities across the UK.”
