NHS Foundation Trust – WWL

Healthier Planet, Healthier People

Project Overview

About WWL Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves and provides the best possible healthcare for the populations of Wigan and Leigh and its surrounding areas.

WWL Trust slogan ‘Healthier planet, healthier people’ perfectly encapsulates the ambitions of their Green Plan.

CILS is honoured to be helping WWL Trust improve one of their 4 key sustainability objectives – ‘to deliver a year-on-year decrease in emissions to the atmosphere and impact on the environment’.

WWL Challenges

High energy consumption and costs. The trust is committed to improving its facilities’ energy efficiency. Lighting was identified as a major opportunity.
Across the sites, lights are on 24/7, and have no option to dim.There are areas with fluorescent fixtures throughout. Many of these are high output T8s that waste over 90% of the energy they consume.

The NHS long term plan is to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2045. All parts of the NHS, including WWL Trust, must take tangible and measurable steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

Loss of equipment. Staff spend an average of 20 min per shift, looking for valuable, lost, or misplaced equipment. Some are never found.For example, a syringe pump used in chemotherapy costs over £1000 each and in a hospital, dozens may go missing every year.

Project Objective

NHS Wigan Hospital Trust

CILS’s objective is to help WWL Trust maximise its buildings energy savings, reduce carbon emissions, and to help solve the problem of lost critical equipment.

Our plan is to establish a sound and future-proof infrastructure for all the wireless systems, to warrant smooth hospital operations.

We are delivering this by supplying and commissioning the lighting and IoT assets. Our emphasis is on maintaining minimal disruption to the everyday running of the hospital and our client’s peace of mind.

77% +

Additional lighting energy and carbon saved with intelligent controls in Royal Albert Infirmary

Improved wellbeing

Perfect light levels, minimal glare and no flicker create a more comfortable environment for both frontline staff and hospital patients

Asset tracking

The programme uses Real Time Location Services to prevent loss of valuable hospital equipment

Future-proof building integrations

This allows additional automated building operations, from asset tracking to smart heating and cooling systems

WWL NHS Trust launched their Green Plan in 2022. It shows the Trust’s clear commitment, not only to local public health, but to support the NHS’s target – achieving net zero by 2045, at the latest.

We’re proud to continue supporting the WWL NHS Foundation trust by significantly improving their buildings’ energy efficiency and reducing their lighting carbon emissions.

Results

Savings & NHS Staff & Patient Wellbeing

In the Royal Albert infirmary alone, the intelligent controls savings are 29,600 kWh for just one month.
At 30p/kWh, this would save the trust £100k on energy bills over a year and remove more than 65 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions from the atmosphere. As this is a rolling project, their carbon and cost savings accumulate with each new area completed.
91% of savings are achieved by the lighting being regulated by its smart controls – responding to whether an area is vacant or occupied; and utilised to serve areas which have an important function. Additionally, 9% of savings come from the system being able to ‘harvest’ natural daylight.
The Enlighted smart controls system constantly optimises the light levels for maximum comfort – for both NHS staff and patients. It guarantees that light levels are calibrated to the task at hand. And in more relaxed settings, to levels that feel most natural to the eye.

Asset Tracking & IoT Benefits

We’re trialing an asset tracking Pilot programme where we can identify valuable, critical pieces of equipment with Enlighted tags.
Wheelchairs, heart pumps and other assets can be located using Real Time Location Services (RTLS) which can provide accurate indoor location and mapping.
As we connect new areas into the Enlighted Internet of Things (IoT) platform, the trust has an opportunity to unlock further smart building solutions.
These include detailed occupancy and utilisation reports and additional building services, like heating and cooling; all part of the intelligent building management system.

Why CILS

CILS has an exceptional track record, delivering smart building projects with minimal/no disruption to client operations. In the hospital setting, this has been particularly crucial. And this makes us stand out.

Siemens Enlighted recommended us as the supply and commissioning delivery partner for their IoT system implementation at the WWL NHS Trust.

Supply & Commission

Once the lighting has been installed, we fine-tune the lighting and commission the Enlighted IoT controls system.

After this, we connect each newly refurbished area into the smart building infrastructure.

Our Approach

In a hospital, lives are on the line 24/7 and emergencies can happen at any time. We are fully aware that access times can be very limited and our site team know full well, to prioritise hospital requirements.

Therefore…

We commission only at specified access hours, be it 4 am or 9 pm. Some areas may only have access for 2hours a week and we plan accordingly.
We are prepared for the unexpected. There have been times when we’ve packed up everything (cables, tools, etc) in minutes, to prioritise staff access in emergency situations.
Communication with staff and the future user is always at the core of our approach. We deliver quality results in the limited time we have. Our aim is to ensure our solution serves the needs of the members of staff, as well as the location.