Oxygen flow testing vital in ensuring system resilience

Concerns around oxygen supply have dogged the response to COVID-19 for hospital Trusts around the UK. Many systems have struggled to deliver the flow capacity required to meet demand from the high numbers of patients requiring ventilation, highlighting the necessity for an effective oxygen flow testing strategy.

Concerns around oxygen supply have dogged the response to COVID-19 for hospital Trusts around the UK. Many systems have struggled to deliver the flow capacity required to meet demand from the high numbers of patients requiring ventilation, highlighting the necessity for an effective oxygen flow testing strategy. Since March 2020, healthcare engineering specialist, MIG Medical Installations, has conducted more than 20 oxygen flow capacity tests for 12 hospitals throughout the UK. Here, managing director, Anthony Mitten, details the importance of site-wide testing, and the impact it can have on contingency planning when high demand is placed on a piped oxygen delivery system.

Of the challenges facing healthcare estates teams in the last year, few have been more significant than maintaining oxygen flow pressure in systems facing unprecedented demand. In the past 12 months, MIG Medical Installations has conducted oxygen capacity flow tests in hospitals in Oxford, in Wigan, in Wrightington, at The Countess of Chester, in Aintree, at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, and in Lancaster and Morecambe Bay.