RACA Journal I February 2026 www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za 33
LABORATORIES
ENSURING UNINTERRUPTED CARE
By Jaco de Wet, ACCM technical manager and a former hospital senior artisan voices
Inside the day-to-day realities of hospital HVAC maintenance. This is part one of a two-part series.
Within the walls of any modern hospital lies an intricate, invisible infrastructure designed not merely for comfort, but for survival. The HVAC systems that support surgical theatres, intensive care units and isolation wards form the backbone of patient safety and infection control. Managing and maintaining this network demands a level of technical precision, procedural discipline and foresight far beyond that required in most other environments.
At a leading private hospital in South Africa, this responsibility once rested on my shoulders, performing work which offers a detailed insight into the operational and compliance-driven complexities of healthcare HVAC management. My scope encompassed not only the hospital’ s complete air-conditioning and ventilation network, but also the mechanical and utility systems that underpin it, including medical gas plants, reverse osmosis( RO) systems, hot water reticulation and standby power generation.
My primary mandate was clear: achieve 100 % operational uptime and ensure that every internal environment – from theatres to wards – consistently met the strict environmental parameters required for patient safety. Our approach was both strategic and hands-on, combining immediate fault-finding and repair work with long-term preventive maintenance planning that transformed the hospital’ s maintenance philosophy from reactive to proactive.
THE DISTINCT NATURE OF HOSPITAL HVAC Maintaining HVAC systems in a hospital differs fundamentally from doing so in commercial or retail environments. Whereas comfort and energy efficiency drive decisions in office buildings and shopping centres, hospitals require HVAC systems that function as life-support infrastructure. Infection control is the overriding priority, demanding an air management strategy that actively prevents the spread of pathogens through controlled pressurisation and advanced filtration.
Jaco de Wet, ACCM technical manager and a former hospital senior artisan.
Operating theatres are maintained under positive pressure to prevent contaminants from entering sterile environments, while isolation rooms are held under negative pressure to ensure infectious particles remain contained. Achieving these conditions requires meticulous balancing of supply and extract airflows, precise humidity control and continuous monitoring to verify that each critical area maintains its design specifications.
All images supplied by ACCM
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RACA Journal I February 2026 www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za 33