APs – a full-time job or just ‘an added extra’?

The assessment, appointment, and acceptance of the Authorised Person role can be seen as a ‘tick-box exercise’, and many APs find that the role is considered as an ‘added extra’ to existing duties and roles. Here Andrew Poplett, an IHEEM-registered Authorising Engineer for both water and specialist ventilation services, discusses the extent and nature of the role – using ventilation as the primary exemplar of duties, although he says many of the issues are universal to all healthcare engineering services.

As an independent Authorising Engineer I am frequently asked to undertake assessments for potential Authorised Persons (AP). Often these individuals are new to an organisation, or have just completed a training course, and all too often the discussion or interview reveals that the individual is already over-stretched, or working to cover a number of operational roles, and even numerous other AP roles. This makes the responsibilities of being an AP seem to be a simple 'box-ticking' exercise, and can mean that the matter is not given the appropriate level of consideration — not only in terms of the role and duties / responsibilities involved, but equally as regards the organisational accountability for the suitable provision of assurance and compliance. In this article I will focus on the role of the Authorised Person (Ventilation), although many, if not all, of the aspects covered will apply to a similar area of work for all of the other engineering roles which require an Authorised Person role/appointment.

The HTM 00 core standard: Policies and principles of healthcare engineering, provides a very high-level overview of the role of AP: