COVID-19 Manual Case Studies: Basingstoke Hospital

Installation

A particularly successful application of UVGI was the Neutropenic Department at Basingstoke Hospital, where UVGI units were installed and were found to have a significant impact on air cleanliness, with a 33% reduction in infections compared to positively pressurised HTM 03 compliant systems and 67% compared to naturally vented wards.

The technical report (2010) produced by Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trus, is entitled ‘Effective UVGI air filtration unit on ambient air spore counts and infection rates in Haemato/Oncology patients hospitalised for chemotherapy.

It is noted that as part of the preparation for the trial test case at Basingstoke Hospital, the manufacturer previously asked the HPA at Porton Down, now part of Public Health England, to carry out independent testing in 2004.  The HPA reported that the unit provided for testing, referred to as the ‘Nightingale Unit’, manufactured by Mansfield Pollard, achieved a ‘filter performance of 99.9997%’ efficiency. This gave Basingstoke confidence in their application of the units.