Heartbeat: It’s looking brighter for the windmill theatres

January 18, 2019

New operating theatre lights have been recently installed in the windmill theatres at City Hospital, making sure all operations are carried out in the brightest environment.

The Simeon LED surgical lights, which were made in Germany, are three times brighter than the previous lights.

Martin Beard, Matron Theatres, explained more to Heartbeat: “Following an infection control and equipment quality audit, we decided to change the lighting in windmill theatres.

“The previous surgical lights have been installed for over 20 years and they were no longer supported by the manufacturer, which means it was becoming increasingly difficult to access new parts of lighting when required.

“In addition, the quality of the lights no longer met the standard and cleaning had become increasingly difficult due to wear and tear.”

Martin and the team have noticed a real improvement since the new lights were installed.

“The new lights have made such a tremendous difference,” said Martin.

“They are sealed units coated in an antibacterial coating, which makes them extremely easy to clean and reduces the risk of cross contamination.”

The new lighting system also has other cost-saving features. Martin added: “The windmill theatres are very busy, so we required the new lights to be installed without disrupting the daily service. Since those lights could be retrofitted into the existing infrastructure in less than two days, we did not need to cancel any operations.

“Utilising existing infrastructure also meant we could reduce the overall cost for the organisation. When the windmill theatres are moved to the Midland Metropolitan Hospital, the new surgical lights can be utilised elsewhere within the retained estate, thanks to their flexible features.”