The Operating Theatre journal April 2021

A £1.7M refurbishment of theatres at Whipps
Cross hospital in Leytonstone has created
a new state-of-the-art operating room with
clean air canopy, LED theatre lights and a
4-bed recovery room, all served by resilient
Bender Medical IT power systems.
Whipps Cross hospital is a large general
hospital and one of four major hospitals
operated by Barts Health NHS Trust; the others
are The Royal London, St Bartholomew’s,
and Newham. The Trust provides healthcare
services for 2.3 million east London residents.
On this particular Barts Health NHS Trust
project, Bender UK worked with Medical Air
Technology (MAT), which designed the theatre
and recovery room services. MAT provided a
full HTM 03-01 compliant critical ventilation,
controls and specialist equipment package,
including an ECO-flow ultraclean ventilation
canopy.
Bender UK designed and installed all the critical
care power and supplied and commissioned
Merivaara Q-FlowTM LED surgical lights and a
new CP924 glass theatre control panel.
Bender UK provides critical power, lights
and hygienic control panel for new
Operating Theatre at Whipps Cross Hospital
The distinctive circular Merivaara lights
work effectively with ECO-flow ultraclean
canopies, enabling an uninterrupted flow of
clean air over the operating table - protecting
the patient from airborne infection and
improving post-operative recovery rates. The
lights deliver market leading R9 99 and R13
99 colour rendering and offer unique shadow
reduction properties.
During the design phase, the team had to deal
with space constraints. Bender UK overcame
this by engineering a bespoke power solution
that delivered resilient Group 2 medical IT
power (IPS) and uninterruptible power (UPS)
that served the operating theatre and 4-bed
recovery room.
It incorporated split modular medical IT
Power, designed with remote transformers
and separate wall mounted distribution
boards installed local to the theatre. The
power system has both floor and wall mount
8kVA IPS units, incorporating EDS, 12 MCBs and
flush-mount fully programmable remote alarm
panel (MK243OS-11). A 20kVA 1:1 UPS rated
at 20 kVA for 60 minutes, including HTM 06
01:2017 compliant battery array, completed
the resilient critical power provision.
Inside the theatre, Bender installed a
CP924 theatre control panel with a remote
PLC interface box outside the area, which
means maintenance can be carried without
compromising theatre availability or infection
control.
The glass touchscreen is intuitive for clinical
staff to use, while delivering significant
benefits in terms of easy cleaning and infection
control. A 42-inch DICOM compliant PACS with
glass fascia, membrane keyboard and medical
PC was also installed.
MAT’s ECO-flow ultraclean ventilation (UCV)
system is a proven and effective way to clean
the air in operating theatres, dramatically
reducing the risks of surgical site infection
(SSI). When used in combination with preoperative,
intra-operative and post-operative
measures, UCV plays a critical role in the fight
against infection.
Inigo Contract Services Ltd was the main
contractor on the design and build project.
The original 1950s built two-storey annexe at
the hospital housed operating theatres 1 and
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2 on the first floor, with a plant room above.
An 18-week programme saw the team working
extraordinary hours to ensure the project was
delivered on time and to budget, to provide
urgently needed facilities for the hospital.
Glenn Reynolds led the project for Inigo
Contract Services. He explained: “The
location of the theatres in an annexe made
access to the working area easier, but we
were constrained by the fact that the ground
floor was still in daily use, and that meant
shutdowns of power or other services had
to be carefully timed so that they did not
interfere with clinical activity.
“Working on a live hospital site during the
pandemic presented other challenges, but
everyone on the project was conscious of
the important work we were undertaking to
support the NHS and rose to those challenges
to complete the project on schedule for
handover in December 2020.”
Rob Speight, Deputy Director of Estates
and Facilities at Whipps Cross Hospital,
commented: “We are always looking for better
and more efficient ways and technology to
help improve patient care and outcomes and
we are pleased to have collaborated with
Bender UK in providing these innovative
features as part of our service upgrades.
The project has been a great success and a
testament to the professionalism displayed by
Bender UK, MAT, Inigo Contract Services and
all of the companies involved in the project.”
Bender UK is the exclusive supplier of
Merivaara Q-Flow LED theatre lights for the
UK and Republic of Ireland, partnering with
MAT to deliver turnkey theatre solutions
incorporating UCV canopies.
For more information visit:
www.bender-uk.com/solutions/healthcare or
email: internalsales@bender-uk.com.
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