A London hospital has installed an air filtration system with the aim of being able to provide more therapy for cystic fibrosis patients more often.
St Bartholomew’s Hospital has installed technology from Commercial Air Filtration, an air quality solutions provider, which is expected to have greatly increased treatment capacity in the hospital’s Respiratory Medicine Department.
The team was limited by the number of cystic fibrosis patients who could receive physiotherapy due to the risk of cross-infection. The department had to safely ventilate the area after use, meaning just two patients a day could be treated in the gymnasium, and the only way to clean the air in the gym was to open the windows, causing considerable knock-on effects for patient treatment lead times.
Christian Lickfett, managing director of Commercial Air Filtration, added: “With NHS budgets under pressure, St Bart’s solution needed to be one that would not only greatly benefit cystic fibrosis patients but also be cost-effective.
“Physiotherapy is an essential component of the treatment for cystic fibrosis, so the department’s ability to slash the downtime for its facilities means they can treat more patients more often — collapsing the time to treatment.
“The filtration unit is capable of filtering 820m3 of air per hour, offers whole system HEPA filtration, requires very little maintenance and was up and running within two hours of arriving on site.
“This practical solution was simple to implement, cost-effective and has had a great impact on efficiency for both staff and patients.”
