AIR-CONDITIONING and ventilation firms may have the answer when it comes to stopping the spread of MRSA and other hospital bugs and are invited by the NHS to get their products tested.
The NHS is keen to find technology that can fight healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) and is inviting businesses to have their products assessed by independant experts, in a hospital setting, to source the
most effective solution for use throughout the NHS.
The NHS is targetted to cut the annual number of MRSA bloodstream infections to less than half the number in 2003/4 . By 2011, it will need to achieve a 30% reduction in C. difficile infections, from 2007/8 levels.
The Smart Solutions for HCAI programme aims to identify new technologies that are not currently in use, or have not been widely adopted, within the NHS.
Project director Bryan Griffiths from TrusTECH which is managing the project, said the air conditioning and ventilation sectors are among those that could offer potential solutions.
Griffiths said: 'Our aim is to find the most effective new solutions to control HCAIs and we are keeping an open mind as to where these could come from.
'There may be some sectors which prove to be a particularly good source of ideas - especially those such as air conditioning and ventilation, which may have innovative products or have developed 'cleanroom' technologies to provide the right conditions for manufacturing and processing.
'The originators of these technologies may not have even considered the fact that they may have healthcare applications and could generate an additional source of revenue'.
The Smart Solutions programme as well as enabling companies to have their products tested for healthcare use, could offer firms a 'fast track' route to becoming a supplier to hospitals and healthcare organisations nationwide.
For more details visit
www.smartsolutionsforhcai.co.uk