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DETERMINING FACILITY REQUIREMENTS In South Africa , medical facilities are considered in two categories , namely the public facilities that form part of government expansion , and then private sector investment . These can be further categorised into clinics , hospitals and surgical theatres , which require different HVAC considerations .
“ A medical facility design all starts with , and will depend entirely on , what you want to do at such a facility . When you make an application to build a hospital for example , the facility owners apply for a particular license , and that license will have certain conditions . This could include application for a specific number of hospital beds , theatres , and procedure rooms . The Department of Health then considers various factors and potential demand for a medical facility in the area of interest before issuing any licenses . Once the license is issued , a professional team is appointed to design the facility . A professional mechanical engineer will design the HVAC system based on legislated requirements or in the case of the bigger private groups , in conjunction with their own set specifications they have developed ,” says Peter Schilder , director at Saftek Consulting .
Knowing which clinical procedures will be conducted at the medical facility will then allow designers to design the correct type of HVAC . Obviously , air quality is very important , as are temperature ranges to cater to the various possible procedures but further , specialists often require very specific parameters . These include activities where various cements are used that require a particular condition , airflow and humidity level to set correctly . There are also applications where air re-circulation is not allowed at all , that needs to be considered .
Figure 1 - Normal Mode
© Spoormaker and Partners | Jonker Bester
Figure 2 - Pandemic Mode The typical schematics of airflow during normal and pandemic modes on the HVAC system in a medical facility .
www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I May 2021 17