Peter Bellis, managing director of Lancashire-based building services consulting engineers, A P Bellis & Associates, discusses the challenges of a complete refurbishment and refit of of one of the operating theatres at Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal in Cumbria.
Theatre 2 at Westmorland General Hospital is 30 years’ old, and was in need of a complete refurbishment. It is part of a twin theatre arrangement, with the two theatres sharing the same clean and dirty corridor areas and a common rooftop plantroom. Each theatre is served by its own input air-handling unit and extract fan system. The Theatre 2 suite had a sloping roof void area above, but safe access for maintenance was not really possible, the difficulties being compounded by the amount of existing ductwork running through the area. A temporary modular theatre was arranged in the grounds of the hospital to maintain surgical continuity while Theatre 2 was refurbished.
Theatre 2 was also fitted with an MAT ultraclean ventilation (UCV) canopy. This was an original installation, and comprised a high-level skirt, and ceiling-mounted return air grilles around the external periphery of the canopy skirt, with a remote recirculation fan system situated within the plant room as part of the airhandling unit assembly. Large supply and extract ductwork fitted with silencers passed between the plant room AHU and roof void canopy, and smaller duct branches serving the ‘prep’ room, anaesthetic room, and ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ corridors.
A complete ‘strip-out’
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