Engineering Healthcare Drainage Systems for Patient Safety: Design Optimisation and Risks associated with AMR
Find out more about subscribing to add all events.
Engineering Healthcare Drainage Systems for Patient Safety: Design Optimisation and Risks associated with AMR
Wed, 17/12/2025 - 13:00 to 14:00
Location:
Speaker:
Prof. Michael Gormley
Affiliation:
HWU
Synopsis:
Healthcare drainage systems represent a significant yet often overlooked pathway for infection transmission. Transmission dynamics, compounded by the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) have led to an increasing awareness of the importance of drainage system design and the risk to patients in close proximity to appliances such as wash-hand basins, showers and toilets. This presentation examines how fluid dynamics phenomena such as airflow, air pressure and air pressure transients within interconnected wastewater networks can mobilise contaminated water from traps into clinical environments, generating aerosols and droplets even without visible ingress. Laboratory studies funded by NHS Scotland confirm that positive pressure waves can transfer bacteria from water seals to wash-hand basins, contaminating surfaces and increasing infection risk. These findings align with historical evidence and recent research on aerosol plumes from toilet flushing, underscoring the role of sanitary plumbing in cross-transmission. Contributing factors include outdated design codes, water usage practices, and pressure surges caused by blockages or maintenance activities. Mitigation strategies such as air pressure attenuation devices, improved water trap seal designs, and system monitoring are essential. Interdisciplinary collaboration between engineering and microbiology is vital to safeguard patient safety and address AMR-related threats.
Biography:
Michael Gormley is Professor of Public Health and Environmental Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh in Scotland. He is a chartered engineer with 40 years' experience in both practise and academia. Since Joining Heriot-Watt University in 2000 he has worked on areas of engineering design and modelling of water and sanitation systems globally. With an extensive track record of attracting research grants from Government research organisations and industry in the areas of sustainability and improving public health for all people. Gormley's work is close to policy and he has been an advisor to the UK Government on the transmission and mitigation of COVID-19 through participation in the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is author of the first ever design guide for Tall BUilding drainage (TM 70:2025 CIBSE). In addition to research in Fluid Mechanics and sanitation provision he is also an expert on the transmission and fate of aerosolised pathogens found in airflows, particularly in Building Sanitary Plumbing Systems. His most recent work has focussed on the transmission of pathogens from contaminated water trap seals in wash-hand basins in healthcare buildings and the linkages between that transmission pathway, wastewater fluid dynamics and the spread of AMR organisms. He is a named inventor on four international patents in the field of public health engineering.