UVD Robots recently interviewed Paul Clarke, Head of Facilities Management Services at Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board. We asked Paul to give us his opinion on UVD Robots compared with manual UVC systems.
Here is what Paul said…
Paul Clarke
“Our journey started around 5 years ago when we purchased our first manual, stand-alone UVC System, after initially trialling it. Since then, over the years we have added to that collection of manual UVC equipment.
We have a number of manual UVC systems based at our community hospital site, predominately used in support of our HPV programmes in smaller areas of the hospital, such as toilets and sluice rooms.
The main problem we found with a manual system was the staffing resource required to move and reposition the unit to each disinfection point, which can take many hours. For example, we recently tried using a manual system in our Oncology department, which is one of our larger areas with a full robust cleaning schedule. However, we had never tried to decontaminate the area using UVC. We used the manual system in this area, and it took one of our operators 20 hours to decontaminate the full Oncology suite, over 3 nights.
In my opinion, it’s very difficult to clean large areas of the hospital using a manual UVC system. Hospitals are made up of lots of large areas that we probably don’t think about when we look at final decontamination. Theatres, Outpatients and Radiology, to name to name just a few.
The advantage of the UVD Robot is its fully autonomous movability. When departments close in the evenings and have very small throughput, we are able to send in the robot to decontamination the area in a very quick way.
To disinfect the whole Oncology department with the UVD Robot took only 90 minutes, which is fantastic! For me, the final outcome is being able to use the autonomous system on a very regular basis. Last night for instance, our UVD Robot was in the Oncology department carrying out a full decontamination and will return there this evening to repeat the exact same process. Yes, it is about time saving and yes, it is about resource, but most importantly it is about patient care and reducing and preventing any harm that may come to them.
After seeing many UVC systems over the years, my initial thoughts about UVD Robots was this is yet another UVC system on the market. However, I have been totally proven wrong. To me, UVD Robots should be one of the Seven Cleaning Wonders of the World. I think that UV technology is fantastic, and I think that UVD Robots are amazing.
My personal view is that UVD Robots will revolutionise preventative cleaning within healthcare environments. We’ve just not had anything similar, with so much flexibility within a healthcare setting to decontaminate such large areas.”
