FILTER FOCUS

disposal cannot be a sustainable way forward (Figure 2). These filters collect colonies of particles and bioaerosols (Figure 3), so their disposal is an ethical obligation and social responsibility. Therefore, maintenance teams must be aware of the hazardous contamination of the wet and loaded filters (Figure 4) in hospital air-handling units. Furthermore, the build-up of contaminants on the heating/ cooling coils compromises the heat transfer mechanism and creates a potential hazard, as shown in Figure 5. Maintenance staff should be better equipped with personal protection to avoid direct exposure to contamination from any segment of the HVAC systems, including porous duct linings, diffusers and drain pans. Adhering to the procedures necessary to minimise exposure to various contaminants underscores the appropriate health and safety issues confronting maintenance teams, which their managers sometimes neglect.

Continuous air quality monitoring devices are the next best incorporations to the facility management toolbox. The devices reveal the physical and chemical characteristics of the air patients, doctors and visitors inhale. They also enable facility management to steer towards datadriven decisions by detecting and responding to air quality deviations from the required standards. The availability and affordability of continuous air quality monitoring systems leaves no excuse for those who oppose the expenditure, as saving a single human life is worth the investment.

Business-savvy facility directors can become co-contributors to air quality enhancements by reinvigorating “fit for purpose” maintenance programmes to accommodate air quality and HVAC demands. Decision-makers in healthcare facilities should focus on providing a sustainable healthy environment, not just cutting filter acquisition and maintenance costs. The stream of paying minimum wages and cutting costs ends in the eerily familiar smudged air diffuser witnessed daily. Chronic and common filter failures accelerate HVAC equipment and hospital ageing faster than planned, leaving the facilities to constantly retrofit and catch up to resolve safety regulations and compliance issues.

Enhancing the healing process in hospital environments requires far more than simple euphemisms about propelling air quality. Instead, authentic engagement involves shared focus and dialogue among urban designers, architects and HVAC filtration experts to avail the integration of technologies to yield sustainable built environments. In addition, advancing air quality considerations to the forefront can shift the hearts, minds and attitudes of decision-makers to make a difference. Initiating healing change from that premise represents learning from the wounds of the pandemic to embarking on a new beginning towards healthy indoor environments. We cannot simultaneously seek cures in hospitals, yet find them contaminated, while decision-makers neglect the danger implicit in the air quality alarms. If providing air quality is a civic right, it must be delivered to eight billion people around the globe, whether they are sick or not. So, as much as we need to open windows to ventilate, we must let the sunshine in and get to the truth about improving hospital air quality.