Power game needs risk-free approach

A member of IHEEM, a Chartered Engineer, and a corporate member of CIBSE, Richard Knight has a technical building services/capital project management background, with over 30 years’ experience in healthcare. Alongside his role as client manager at CPA Solutions, he is a leading member of the company’s Informed Client estates advisory team, advising on estates, managerial, and technical matters on issues ranging from engineering strategy to Legionella, and from ventilation to emergency planning. He also developed, and teaches, the Electrical LV Authorised Person (AP) Course and Ventilation AP courses at Eastwood Park. A founder committee member, and current chairman, of the CIBSE Healthcare Group, he has contributed to standards and guidance including CIBSE Guide H, MEIGaN, HTM 03, and draft ASHRAE and European guidance on healthcare ventilation systems. An Authorising Engineer, he advises clients including NHS acute, PCT, and ambulance Trusts, the Fire Service, and the Police. Richard Knight began, before moving to the crux of his presentation, by describing some of the potential issues he had encountered when examining electrical installations in hospitals, which he said clearly demonstrated why extreme care and consideration needed to be taken, for instance, in the location of plant. He said: “I have often seen generators inappropriately positioned, resulting in exhaust fumes getting into part of a hospital building, which not only endangers the health of staff, but can also lead to fire alarms being set off. Another major issue,” he continued, “is that lack of proper maintenance can result in a standby generator not actually starting up when it is required to do so, resulting in parts of a hospital suffering a complete power loss should mains power be interrupted, which, in the case of areas like A&E, ICU, and operating theatres, can be disastrous.”

Uncertain cause of death

The speaker said that, while Health and Safety Executive data suggested there were some 30 fatalities in the UK due to electrical accidents every year, many more deaths could potentially result from hospitals losing power. The number of fatalities that actually resulted from a brownout or blackout in any given year in healthcare facilities may, therefore, not be accurately known. He added: “Engineers, and indeed estates and facilities personnel, tend to put a lot of reliance on components such as circuit breakers, but need always to be considering the potential consequences should they fail. When specifying electrical equipment, whether large plant, such as a generator, or the smallest, but still extremely important, components like circuit breakers or relays, it is vital to think about how long they are likely to last, and how easy they will be to replace should they either reach their end of life, or fail.” It was essential, he stressed, that estates and facilities managers had in place effective management procedures to enable them to cope effectively in the event of an unplanned outage, while equally important was that all electrical plant and systems should be as “resilient” as possible. Moving to the main part of his presentation, Richard Knight argued that the significant amount of legislation and guidance covering electrical services and installations in healthcare was there to enable those responsible for such equipment, usually a hospital’s estates and facilities team in conjunction with external engineers, to be able to effectively manage patient, business, and legal risks. In the case of the former, loss of electrical supply could have a number of serious consequences, including making it difficult for patients, staff, and visitors to escape from parts of the hospital, and preventing treatment. The same individuals could also be at serious risk of electrocution from faulty or badly maintained electrical equipment.