This project’s goal was to centralize all the labs of Sheffield Teaching hospitals into one location.
We supplied the medicine unit with:
We installed a range of supply manifolds for those gases, pipework distribution network to the relevant laboratories, outlet points with combined valves and regulators, gas detection systems, alarms and an electro pneumatic gas emergency shut off facility.
The semi-automatic gas supply manifolds comprised of twin cylinder arrangement giving a duty and standby function to provide a constant supply of gas to the user outlet point.
Each outlet point – both wall and bench mounted types – consisted of an isolation valve, regulator, pressure gauge and in the case of the hydrogen gas, a flash back arrestor was also fitted. This gave the user a flexible pressure range depending on their tasks.
Isolation valves were installed on the system enabling flexibility to carry out any maintenance or modification works to the systems without having to fully isolate the system.
A number of gas specific detection sensors were fitted within each laboratory, giving indication on a control panel allocated to each laboratory. Audio visual units have been fitted on the entrance and inside each laboratory.
An alarm panel giving the user indication that the gas system is depleting and that the cylinder requires replacing. Each alarm has an audio-visual indicator.
An emergency gas isolation panel was fitted, so that in the event of a fault, all the services can be automatically isolated by pressing one of the break glasses. When the break glass is triggered, the control panel pneumatically activates the actuators fitted to each gas service supply pipe. The service can only be reinstated by pressing the control unit rest button.
The medical gases supplied for this project are Oxygen, Nitrous Oxide, Medical Air, Surgical Air, Vacuum & AGSS. These were fed from the existing clean corridor services. Prior to our work starting on the theatres we assisted the client in organizing the installation of new isolation valves on each of the theatres to enable us easier isolation of each theatre when they were due to be upgraded.
Each theatre consisted of an AVSU module with integral Athena alarm and individual at the nurse base, N.I.S.T Line Valves and connecting onto new AGSS simplex pumps installed in the plantroom above. All alarms from each AVSU link to each Surgeons’ panel.
The first of these ward upgrades had to be completed in just 8 weeks. The project was so fast paced that by the time we were upgrading the last ward, the time frame had been reduced down to 6 weeks.
To achieve those tight timeframes, we were able to purchase the relevant terminal units’ oxygen and vacuum, and ensure the vertical head wall units were manufactured in parallel. For additional complexity, each vertical head wall unit differed in length due to the existing services already installed on the walls on site.
In total, we completed 7 wards. The final ward we completed had the additional requirement of Medical Air 4 installed at each bed space. Whilst carrying out this work, we also installed a new AVSU module at the ward entrance to isolate all 3 gases, along with an Athena alarm panel.