Medical air conditioning

Who this page is for

We install and maintain air conditioning in community healthcare premises across London and the South East: GP surgeries and health centres, dental practices, physiotherapy and osteopathy clinics, opticians, private clinics, pharmacies, vets and care settings. Each of these has its own detail, and we have separate pages for GP surgeries, dental practices and hospitals.

What they share is that people are unwell, anxious or undressed, staff are making careful decisions, and the rooms are cleaned to a higher standard than an ordinary office.

Comfort cooling, not specialised ventilation

It helps to be clear about the line. NHS England’s HTM 03-01 gives guidance on specialised ventilation for healthcare premises, aimed mainly at acute settings such as operating theatres and isolation rooms. Those systems are designed by specialist engineers and are not what we do. Our work is comfort cooling and heating for consulting rooms, treatment rooms, waiting areas, offices and staff rooms, where a split or VRF system is a sensible choice. Where a room may fall under specialised ventilation guidance, we will flag it and suggest you check with your estates adviser or infection control lead.

Cleanable, quiet and well placed

• Cleanable: indoor units with smooth surfaces and filters that lift out easily. Some manufacturers offer extra filtration or air-cleaning features: we explain what each one does from the manufacturer’s own data, without overclaiming.
• Quiet: consulting rooms need units that sit in the background. We compare published sound levels at low fan speed.
• Well placed: airflow kept off examination couches, treatment chairs and desks, and units sited where cleaning staff can reach them.
• Tidy: trunking and pipe runs kept neat, sealed where they pass through walls, and condensate drains routed away from clinical work surfaces.

Working with your infection control lead

Before we start, we ask who leads on infection control, and agree how we will work: which rooms, when, how dust is contained, how waste leaves the building, and how the room is cleaned before it goes back into use. Drilling and cutting are done with the room emptied or protected, and we vacuum as we go. For maintenance, we agree a filter cleaning and service frequency that matches how the room is used and cleaned.

Waiting rooms and reception

Waiting areas fill and empty through the day and often have large windows or a glazed entrance. Reception staff sit there for hours. We size these areas for a full room on a warm afternoon and keep cold air away from the reception desk and the seats nearest the unit. Ceiling cassettes suit larger waiting rooms, and wall units suit smaller ones.

Care homes and residential care

Older residents can be badly affected by heat, and a hot lounge or bedroom in a heatwave is a real worry for families and staff. In care settings we look at bedrooms, lounges, dining rooms and offices, and choose controls that staff can manage centrally, so residents are kept comfortable without units being left at extremes. Installation is planned room by room with the manager, around residents’ routines. Our care homes guide covers this in more depth.

Pharmacies, opticians and therapy clinics

Smaller healthcare premises have their own needs. Pharmacies have a shop floor, a dispensary and a consultation room, often in a high street unit with a glazed front. Opticians have darkened testing rooms full of equipment. Physiotherapy and sports clinics have treatment rooms and sometimes a small gym. We look at each room and its use, and choose quiet, cleanable units that suit it.

Installs outside clinic hours

Patient lists are booked weeks ahead, so we fit equipment in the evenings, at weekends, or on days when rooms are not booked. A small practice can often be done over a weekend. For a larger building we can work room by room, handing each back clean and tested. Our 24/7 line is there if a system fails during a clinic.

Medicines, fridges and equipment

Air conditioning helps keep rooms where medicines are stored at a steady temperature, but it is not a substitute for a proper medical refrigerator or for the storage conditions set by the medicine’s maker. Some equipment, such as IT and imaging kit, gives off heat and may have its own temperature limits. We will look at those rooms on the survey and size for them.

F-Gas, TM44 and maintenance

Healthcare premises have the same F-Gas duties as any other business. The operator must make sure leak checks are done at the right interval for the refrigerant charge, by an F-Gas certified company. If the air conditioning in the building totals more than 12 kW, it needs a TM44 inspection at least every five years. A maintenance contract covers servicing, leak checks and records for your compliance file. Healthcare work is priced after survey.