Covid-19 Compliant Facility at New Cross Hospital

Our Building services team provided technical and design guidance to ensure that the facility was constructed with a bespoke ventilation regime.

To assist with keeping a fully balanced and steady internal environmental atmosphere pressure balancing dampers were provided in each ward, commissioned and set to ensure even pressure balances within the new structure.

The mechanical ventilation design and, in particular the airflow paths and space pressurisation was of paramount importance. The ventilation system was designed in line with HTM guidance and government publications plus enhanced technical design features to assist with critical airflow patterns and internal movement of air.

The whole building needed a constant supply volume in excess of 11m³/s all of which had to be conditioned and distributed to ensure specific area volumes and pressure differentials. The Air Handling Unit was over 12m long and stood over 4.5m high with its own air cooled chiller and chilled water pipework circuit. Low Pressure Hot Water heating was derived from the sites centralised steam system via plate heat exchangers and was sized to provide full fresh air in line with the current Covid-19 design guidance.

Each ward was negatively pressurised with transient spaces and adjacencies being positively pressurised providing a maximum of 15pa (pascals) differential. The need to exhaust vitiated air expediently was factored into the air terminal layout plan for each space to reduce the opportunity for airborne contamination and spread of Covid-19.