RCBO's & RCD's in Hospitals

[jansara]

We are Hospital Engineers Based in the USA doing work in Africa. We often use the UK standards & regs as a basis for design. We are trying to better understand the use of RCBO and RCD's in clinical settings for sockets. We are concerned about nuisance trip in critical care situations. We would appreciate both interpretation of the regulations and practical advice from electricians who regular work in Hospitals. Thank you.

 

[Rockingit]

Interesting. I say that as a Brit who often works in the US (and occasionally Africa).

I don't do hospitals (disclaimer!) but it is indeed a very broad subject with the key being to have proper upstream discrimination and then coordination of SELV and IT stages onwards. I think a rule of thumb is to only take the route of earth/ground fault protection if you can't achieve it by another means.

That said, in UK hospitals it's common to use keyed sockets out in general ward areas for medical equipment alongside ordinary ones - so eg you might have a keyed socket to plug in an ECG monitor which won't be protected by RCD fitted next to an ordinary one for a patient TV that does.

 

[UNG]

I have not worked in hospitals for a few years now but have previously worked on hospital installations for aroud 30 years
Electrical installations in UK hospitals generally conform with BS7671 where there has been safety issues these are investigated and highlighted in the HTM's (health technical memorandums) that are occassionally issued
Generally socket outlets are divided to essential and non essential circuits with the essential sockets usually having red switches.
Where some equipment has particular operating requirements quite often non standard sockets are installed these generally have a different earth pin style to prevent the standard plugs being inserted