DSFS 

Owned by Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the Derbyshire Support and Facilities Services (DSFS) helps to safeguard the valuable and essential service that the hospital provides for the 400,000 people in and around the North Derbyshire area. DSFS is responsible for the finance, procurement, clinical engineering and estates, and facilities services on behalf of the NHS Trust.

The solution and results

Coving a wide range of medical services, which often operate continuously, the hospital requires a reliable tertiary power network that is not only installed to the highest calibre but also maintained to the high standards outlined in the HTM 06-01.

In order to mitigate the risk to life and guarantee an unbroken supply of electricity, healthcare estates often take a multifaceted approach to backing up their power supply. A mixture of UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) and IPS (isolated power supplies) will cover the immediate risk and prevent critical machines from shutting down.

More often than not, older healthcare facilities will have a mixture of manufacturers as part of their backup power network. This is because they reach their end of life at different times and will need replacing independently. When choosing the tertiary power maintenance provider, it is important to bear this in mind and select a competent company with the knowledge and experience of multi-vendor equipment.

In 2017, DSFS put a tender out for a backup power company to maintain Chesterfield Royal’s existing tertiary power infrastructure containing a range of 21 UPS systems and 26 IPS systems. Some of which were coming to the end of life and in need of replacement. As a multi-vendor maintenance provider with nearly 30 years of experience and factory-trained engineers, Power Control won the tender and took over the maintenance of the systems. The initial tender was for 2 years but DSFS were so happy with the service they received that they extended the contract for another 2 years and are looking for a third extension for 2/3 years.

An additional UPS maintenance contract had already been held for the trust by Power Control which has been in place since 2005.

In compliance with the HTM 06-01, Power Control provides one preventative maintenance visit per annum for the IPS systems and two preventative maintenance visits per annum for the UPS systems. Knowing how critical a hospitals power supply is, emergency call outs are covered to a level of 24 hours/7 days a week giving DSFS the peace of mind that their emergency power systems are fully supported.