It has become increasingly important to control the spread of Coronavirus through monitoring key symptoms, such as a fever.
To reduce the risk to the key workers and patients of University Hospital Llandough from doing this manually, Oprema – the Cardiff-based multi-brand distributor of security equipment – and its partner, Dahua Technology – the world leading solution provider in the global video surveillance industry – have donated a thermal imaging solution which can automatically detect a person’s temperature in less than a second without the need for personal contact, providing the hospital with an accurate primary screening solution.
The process currently used by many hospitals involves frontline key workers using a handheld infrared thermometer to measure peoples’ temperatures as they enter a facility. For this to work, the individual conducting the temperature monitoring has to get very close to the potentially infected person, increasing the risk of the virus being transmitted. These manual checks are also very time-consuming in an environment where no-one wants to wait longer than necessary.
The Dahua Thermal Solution has an accuracy of ±0.3℃ and removes the need for handheld thermometers, reducing the risk to staff and speeding up the patient entry process.
By combining the latest CCTV and thermal temperature measurement technology, the donated solution – which is worth £15,000 – is capable of automatically detecting if a person has a higher-than-normal body temperature, and can screen individuals or larger groups simultaneously. As a comparison, using a handheld forehead thermometer to measure the temperatures of 5,000 people would take over four hours[1]. With the Dahua Thermal Solution – which is capable of measuring three people per second – 5,000 people takes just 30 minutes.
The donated solution has been installed in the Trauma & Orthopaedics Department at University Hospital Llandough. Should someone enter the space with a high temperature, an alarm sounds as an indication they are potentially carrying a virus and should be checked by a medical professional.
Chris Wilson, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Trauma & Orthopaedics at University Hospital Llandough, comments: “We need to keep our clinic going during the current crisis, now for trauma patients and also later on for patients suffering with pain and disability waiting for urgent assessment. The donated thermal solution will be a huge help to our team in screening patients quickly and effectively, without putting those doing the measuring at unnecessary risk of infection themselves. Thank you to Oprema and Dahua for donating this great solution, it is really helpful in this current climate and very much appreciated by our team.”
Matthew Epps, Managing Director at Oprema, adds: “Being our local hospital, we wanted to donate the Dahua Thermal Solution to University Hospital Llandough to help in the fight against COVID-19, reducing the risk to our community’s frontline keyworkers and freeing up time for them to perform other critical functions. The same solution has been implemented in other environments requiring the screening of a high volume of people since the beginning of the pandemic, including airports and NHS Nightingale. We’re really pleased to be doing our bit locally by donating one of these systems to University Hospital Llandough.”
Installation of this rapidly deployable solution requires very little disruption to general operations and can be up and running in as little as 24 hours from point of order.
