Medical Air Technology

09/12/2025

Birmingham Children's Hospital has been undergoing a major upgrade to bring the Victorian-era environment up to modern standards. Part of the upgrade includes additional operating theatres with the latest imaging and diagnostic technology.

MAT was brought into the project by Midwest Mechanical and Electrical Services Ltd to supply and install our MCP (MAT Core Package) - encompassing ECO-flow Stealth ultraclean ventilation canopies, theatre equipment, specialist ventilation and controls - in two of the new operating theatres.

The flush-to-ceiling Stealth canopy design means there's plenty of space for additional architecture, such as the Brainlab specialist imaging equipment installed in one of the theatres, which is connected directly to an MRI. The MRI machine, which was entirely funded by the hospital’s charity, allows neurosurgeons to obtain real-time, up-to-date images of a brain tumour during surgery.

Work on site was completed this week, and we'll be back at the hospital next week to carry out end-user training. Well done to MAT project manager Jason King and everyone involved!

27/11/2025

🧑🏽‍🔬 MAT has installed containment laboratories in some of the UK’s leading research departments, both in hospitals and universities. Clients include Imperial College London, the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the University of Plymouth, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

For the recent CL3 laboratory project at Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB, the scope covered:

🥼Corridor - The general circulation corridor provides access to the ante room. From here, users can view key facility parameters (room pressures, alarms) and operate the ventilation system into fumigation mode. Ingress to the lab is via an accessed controlled door. An electrical cupboard houses distribution and building management system hardware.
🥼Ante room - Accessed from a circulation corridor, the ante room forms the first stage of the biocontainment boundary. This area is for hand washing and gowning/de-gowning on entry or exit from the main laboratory spaces.
🥼CL3 laboratory - The main containment space is where the bulk of the operational activities take place. This room contains five Class I Microbiological Safety Cabinets, incubators and benching.
🥼Dark room - Ancillary process space accessed from the CL3 laboratory. This space provides benching, process equipment and a Class II microbiological safety cabinet
🥼Autoclave - Dedicated space for the waste disposal plant for high temperature sterilisation and pass-through to waste room. Also contains a sluice sink for wash-up activities.
🥼Roof level location for the supply air handling unit, extract air plant, runaround pumps, condensers and motor control panels.

All work was completed in compliance with current standards and guidance including the HSE ACDP document Management, Design and Operation of Microbiological Containment Laboratories; and COSHH Control of Substances Hazardous to Health.

25/11/2025

🧑‍🔬A new CL3 containment lab delivered by Medical Air Technology (MAT) will help hospitals in Hertfordshire and West Essex provide a more efficient and sustainable centralised pathology service🧑‍🔬

In his review of efficiency in hospitals, commissioned by the Department of Health to show how improved efficiency can be made by the NHS, the first point Lord Carter of Coles highlighted was that “the provision of high-quality clinical care and good resource management go hand-in-hand. All Trusts should therefore grasp the use of their resources more effectively.”

The establishment of the new shared pathology network is one example of how this is being achieved, in line with Lord Carter’s report and the resulting national programme initiated by NHS England. The shared pathology service is sustainable for hospitals, community services and GPs, and patients, and is an exciting stage in the drive towards improved efficiencies across all NHS facilities.

The hub required a Containment Level 3 (CL3) laboratory for processing pathology samples in order to protect staff, the public, and the environment from potentially infectious pathogens. For this part of their work, construction company Walter Lilly brought in MAT due to its proven track record and previous CL3 projects carried out with them. Some initial laboratory designs were provided to the MAT team, but they were subsequently reworked in what became a full design and build project.

Watch out for our next post, where we'll share more details on the scope of the project...👀

21/11/2025

Activities involving biological agents are carried out in specially designed laboratories. These are described in COSHH as Containment Levels (CL). The requirements for the four different containment levels (CL1-4) are a combination of design, safety equipment, and working practices. The level of control increases in line with the CL number, so CL1 has the minimum level of control, while CL4 has the highest. CL3 laboratories are the highest level containment laboratories in common use in the UK.

We've supplied CL3 and other laboratories to many UK hospitals and life science facilities - visit our website to read our case studies on projects with Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Aberystwyth University’s innovation cluster - VetHub1 (shown in the image below), and many more

We work across a diverse and exciting range of healthcare and life science facilities. We are very proud of all our successful projects and want to share them with you. This section is updated frequently so please check back regularly for the latest news from MAT and MAT FM.

18/11/2025

The team at MAT is absolutely committed to delivering the best laboratory containment facilities to enable the best research. Getting positive feedback from clients makes us all really proud. On completion of a CL3 lab within the University of Plymouth's Derriford Research Facility, it was great to get this from Dr Paul Waines, Senior Technician in the university’s School of Biomedical Sciences:
“CL3 facilities enable us to carry out all manner of important research in a variety of areas, and we were delighted that MAT agreed to take on the project. Their professional approach, competence and effective communication at all stages led to delivery of the project on schedule and a seamless commissioning/validation process. We are delighted with the final result and look forward to our researchers making full use of this facility to further expand their research in the near future.”

11/11/2025

🚦Imagine if you could see the status of your ultraclean ventilation canopy at a glance... With the ECO-flow Stealth traffic light system, you can!

LED traffic lights built into the perimeter of the clean zone clearly show UCV status:
🟢Green = UCV mode
🟠Amber = Conventional mode
🔴Red = UCV fault
🔵Blue = HEPA filters dirty

For more information, please visit our website https://medicalairtechnology.com/eco-flow-stealth/

09/11/2025

This Remembrance Sunday, we join with the nation to remember the service and sacrifice of all those who have defended our freedoms and protected our way of life.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
from 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon

07/11/2025

Have you received the new copy of Health Estate Journal? Great to see our story on the work we did at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust featured in the Health Sector News pages 😃

We'd also like to say a huge congratulations to Jonathan Baillie, whose 17 years as Editor of the IHEEM (Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management) journal have been recognised with a Special Achievement Award. You can read more about Jonathan and the award in this month's magazine.

31/10/2025

Something scary lurking in the air in your operating theatre or laboratory? 🦠

The Medical Air Technology Bacteria Busters are here to help!

Call us on +44 (0) 844 871 2100 or email sales@medicalairtechnology.com and we'll power up the proton packs and come to your rescue.

🎃 Happy Halloween, everyone! 🎃

29/10/2025

We recently finished work on a CL3 laboratory for a leading research centre within a UK university.

The client gave us great feedback, which we look forward to sharing along with the full project story shortly.

16/10/2025

Exciting to see the air handling units being delivered and installed at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust today as part of our works on the Theatre 1 refurbishment project.