Standards · Standard or regulation
HTM 03-01
Health Technical Memorandum 03-01: Specialised ventilation for healthcare premises
In plain words
What it covers.
NHS guidance for ventilation in operating theatres, isolation rooms, critical care and other specialised areas. It sets air change rates, pressure cascades, filtration and the design and validation of ultra-clean ventilation (UCV) for implant surgery. It also requires annual verification of specialised systems.
Who uses it: Ventilation engineers, estates, infection prevention teams and theatre planners.
A summary written by BMEssentia for learning, not the text of the standard. Always work from the current official edition and the manufacturer's instructions.
It covers
- Conventional theatre ventilation
- Ultra-clean ventilation (UCV)
- Pressure regimes between rooms
- Isolation rooms
- Filtration
- Validation and annual verification
Key points
What engineers need to know.
- A conventional theatre typically needs about 25 air changes per hour of filtered supply air.
- UCV theatres for implant surgery aim for under 10 colony forming units per m3 at the wound site.
- Air should flow from clean to less clean areas using pressure differences.
- Systems must be validated before first use and verified at least every year.
- Changing a room layout can disturb the UCV airflow pattern.
- Energy saving set-backs must not compromise the clean conditions during surgery.
Medical City
Where you practise it.
- S2-M011 laminar flow design
- S2-M057 and S2-M073 ventilation commissioning and failure
- S2-M128 energy audit
- Room Builder infection control by design