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ILECS won a competitive tender to work with East Herts hospitals in the role of Authorising Engineer (AE), at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage.
As part of the AE role within the HTM08 guidelines, ILECS act as the lift experts (or consultants) for East Herts hospitals. The HTM08 (Health Technical Memorandum) is specifically available to the National Health Service (NHS), providing comprehensive advice and guidance on the design, installation and operation of specialised building and engineering which is used in the delivery of healthcare, including lifts.
The procedures under the memorandum outline the type of lifts hospitals should have, the type of servicing it should receive, the sizing, and all other key requirements relating to the lifts, including the duties of each role within the HTM framework. These roles include an Authorised Engineer which is ILECS role in this case, along with an Appointed Person (AP).
As the AE on this project, we are required to audit the hospital staff to ensure that they have a full understanding of what they should be doing to look after their lifts, whether that regards paperwork or mechanical matters.
ILECS were appointed by East Herts Hospitals as the AE on this project to ensure that both the paperwork and the technical work is being carried out correctly and safely on all hospital lifts. This is in an effort to lessen the impact on the AP and their daily role at the hospital, allowing them to carry out their responsibilities safe in the knowledge that paperwork is compliant, and that all parties are aware of their duties within the HTM framework. This includes knowing who to call out when lifts stop working and holding regular meetings to keep all parties in contact.
This project presented a few challenges for the ILECS team particularly in relation to the location of the lifts. As the lifts are in a busy hospital setting, it can be tough to find the time to review the lift audits around the tight schedule of the assigned AP. Hospitals are extremely busy and are in operation 24 hours a day, so the lifts are in constant use which presented a challenge when attempting to find the most appropriate time to stop the lift for the required inspections. Managing these challenges was a key element of this project but our team worked hard to minimise the impact on all hospital staff and its patients.
In our role, the ILECS team checked that the lifts were maintained correctly and that from a health and safety point of view, everything was how it should be. We visited the hospital on a quarterly basis, had meetings with the hospital and lift contractors and, if any issues were raised regarding the lifts, we were often asked to advise on options and ensure the work was carried out to specification. As the AE, we were expected to carry out annual maintenance audits, inspecting every lift within the hospital and providing a report.
Our experience with other hospitals enables us to make recommendations about systems that have worked previously and share our expertise. This is particularly useful as hospitals can experience quite a few lift issues that have the potential to impact patients and staff if not managed efficiently.
Although the HTM08 role is one that is required at all NHS hospitals, ILECS was able to bring years of learned experience to this project, allowing the responsible persons at East Herts Hospitals to understand the processes that need to be followed with regards to their lifts. A training centre catering to NHS staff also ensures those appointed persons within the hospital itself, understand the role and requirements within the framework.
We greatly enjoyed working with the team at East Herts Hospitals. To find out more about our HTM08 Authorising Engineer services, contact our team today.
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