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 renowned Cardiff-based multi-brand distributor of security equipment, and its partner, Dahua Technology have donated a thermal imaging solution to the facility.
This high-tech thermal imaging solution 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 being used by many hospitals largely involves frontline health and other key workers using a handheld infrared thermometer to measure peoples’ temperatures as they enter and exit a facility.
For this method to work, the individual conducting the temperature monitoring of people has to get very close to the potentially infected person, thereby 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, considering the threat of the infection.
The Dahua Thermal Solution has an accuracy of ±0.3℃ and removes the need for handheld thermometers, so as to reduce the risk to staff and thereby speeding up the patient entry process.
By combining the latest CCTV and thermal temperature measurement technology, the donated solution 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 roughly. With the Dahua Thermal Solution, which is capable of measuring three people per second, checking the temperature of 5,000 people takes just approx. 30 minutes.
The donated thermal 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 that 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, commented, “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.”
He adds, “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, added, “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 key workers and freeing up time for them to perform other critical functions”. 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.
