IHEEM (HK) Symposium

I am glad to join the symposium on “Advanced Design & Technology in Healthcare & Laboratory Facilities” organized by The Institute of Healthcare Engineering And Estate Management – Hong Kong Branch (IHEEM (HK)).

First, Ir. P.L. Yuen (Chairman of IHEEM (HK)) gave a welcome speech.


Then Ir. Dr. Raymond Ho (Rep. of the Engineering Functional Constituency, Legislative Council) gave opening address.


The keynote speech presented by Dr. Leung Pak-Yin (Director (Quality & Safety of Hospital Authority). He reviewed SARS situation and said the isolation function should be considered in air system.

My colleague, Mr. Kam Liu (Vice chairman of IHEEM (HK)) introduced different speakers.

The first speaker was Mr. Claus Schweinheim (Head of Specialized Products of Caverion GmbH) and his topic was “Design of biohazard level 4 facilities”.

He compared different international standards including BMBL, EN 12128, DIN EN 1620, etc.
And then realization of a ventilation system of class 3 and class 4 laboratory ventilation systems were introduced. Some examples were shared such as Germany project.

Mr. Adrian Turner (Managing Director of Static Systems Group Plc.) and Mr. Steve Robinson (Regional Business Line Manager of Beacon Medaes) were the second & third speakers and their talk was “Updated NHS standard in medical gas and healthcare communications” and “An Introduction to HTM 02-01”.

Mr. Turner introduced the device called “Nurse Call Advances” which was an adult in-patient facility.

Mr. Robinson introduced medical gas systems. The primary objective was to ensure the provision of a safe and reliable medical gas pipeline system and its efficient operation and use. Difference three sources of supply were reviewed.

Dr. Bing-Chuen Yang presented for Dr. Yie-Zu Robert Hu (Deputy General Director of Industrial Technology Research Institute) and the topic was “Taiwan experience in isolation ward design”. During SARS in 2003, ITRI under the instruction of the government had been in charge of 5 military hospitals’ renovations. ITRI had spent 14 days to remodel one of them to become the SARS special treatment hospital. Dr. Yang had also introduced the challenges for designing the Ambulance.

He concluded that distributed system air conditioning system for the insolated ward was proved to satisfy the requirement and the quick renovation for the designated purpose hospital have resulted the settle-down of spreading of SARS infections in Taiwan.

After completed the morning session, all speakers were invited for Q&A.

Mr. Stuart Ward (Chief Hospital Engineer, Clifford Hospital) was the fifth speaker and his talk was “JCI accreditation of hospital facilities in China. He introduced the Joint Commission International Accreditation (JCIA) – Standards for Hospitals.

There are 6 goals for patient safety:
1) Identify Patients Correctly
2) Improve Effective Communication
3) Improve the Safety of High-alert Medications
4) Ensure Correct-site, Correct-patient, Correct-procedure
5) Reduce the Risk of Health Care Associated Infections
6) Reduce the Risk of Patient Harm Resulting from Falls

The sixth speaker was Prof. Tu Guangbei (Tianjin University) and his topic entitled “National standard and T&C requirements of O.T. in China.

He introduced GB 50333-2002 “Architectural Technical Code for Hospital Clean Operating Department”, in which operation theater was classified into 4 levels.

One of argument was over estimated the degree of infection during operation related to operation theater class level.

The seventh speaker was Mr. Philipp Leicher (Managing Director of Bio-Oxygen Australia Pty.) and his speech called “Air purification in healthcare and laboratory environments”.

He introduced that indoor air quality control is very important as it not only provides healthy indoor air and prevents epidemics but it also helps to save energy. Several Bio-Oxygen bacteria test reports were explained and showing up to 100% bacteria reduction.


Mr. K.B. Leung (Director & Vice President of PBA Ltd.) was the final speaker and his topic entitled “Modern hospital design in Hong Kong”. He introduced different reference guidelines for design and summarized the modern hospital E&M system design objectives as:
1) Must be energy efficiency
2) Clean Hospital
3) E&M plant room location
4) Building service – operation, maintenance & expansion
5) Central sterilization system

After the afternoon session, all speakers were also invited for Q&A.

where the stand up speaker who was the sixth speaker (Prof. Tu Guangbei).