SONTAY’S SENSORS ASSURE PATIENT HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Hospitals are the UK's lifeblood, providing patients across the country with access to specialised medical care and treatment. A cornerstone of their communities, hospitals must undergo routine upgrade and maintenance work in order to ensure they continually deliver to their high standards writes Stacey Lucas from Sontay.

Hospitals are the UK's lifeblood, providing patients across the country with access to specialised medical care and treatment. A cornerstone of their communities, hospitals must undergo routine upgrade and maintenance work in order to ensure they continually deliver to their high standards writes Stacey Lucas from Sontay.

King's College Hospital in south London is a major inner-city hospital managed by King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. As well as being a leading facility for care and treatment, King's is a large medical hub which is one in a trio of institutions belonging to the King's College London School of Medicine.

The hospital underwent an £80million extension to its existing coronary care unit (CCU) building to provide vital new CCU and isolation room bed space for patients. To ensure these critical areas are controlled and monitored accurately, it was decided that an extensive range of building control peripherals were needed. A myriad of solutions from market-leading specialist Sontay were specified as part of a sophisticated building management system (BMS).

Siemsatec, a specialist in BMS design, installation and maintenance was tasked with installing the BMS for the new space. The system needed to give simple control over the extension's HVAC plant to keep patients comfortable, help streamline the hospital's budget and offer a healthy environment to patients through effective temperature control. A further consideration was to ensure the hospital could maintain the efficient running of the building and enable energy and cost savings.

Working collaboratively with Sontay, Siemsatec undertook full system design and management of the project from start to finish. Siemsatec installed a Trend IQ4 and 963 BMS, along with a range of Sontay solutions, which monitor all of the air handling units as well as the LTHW & CHW plant within the CCU bed spaces.

The versatility of Sontay's solutions means a range of field devices can monitor all aspects of a commercial building. This allows the likes of Siemsatec to select exactly what is required for each application. The Sontay products that were specified included temperature and combined temperature, and humidity sensors to monitor environmental conditions on the wards for patient and staff wellbeing. Immersion and frost thermostats, air and water differential pressure switches, air differential sensors, flow grids, smoke detectors, water detection and thyristor controllers were also specified to monitor the building service equipment.

“The new control system ensured the facilities team could manage and monitor the system with ease in order to improve overall efficiency and respond to the needs of both patients and staff in the building,” commented Joe Bailey, Project Manager at Siemsatec. “We decided to use Sontay because of its reliability and the quality of the products. All of the solutions were easy to install and worked well once in place.”

This project was extended within a fixed budget and delivered to a tight deadline to ensure the existing CCU unit remained operational. It was essential for the space to remain functional during the renovation process and give patients immediate use of the services. “The prompt delivery Sontay offered really helped us deliver the completed project on time,” continued Joe.

Following the installation and completion of the project, the facilities management team at the hospital can now manage, monitor and adapt the control system quickly and easily. They will also ensure the hospital is operating as efficiently as possible and respond to the needs of both patients and staff within the building. The presence of Sontay's solutions on King's College Hospital's new CCU unit will enable a vital medical facility to keep delivering and pioneering treatment for patients for years to come.