Air movements and air change rates within nucleus hospitals.

The Nucleus Hospital programme has been progressed by the Department of Health for over a decade. The Maidstone District General Hospital was the first project which involved the construction of a complete hospital using the Nucleus design concept. Within a hospital, air movement patterns and air change rates are a prime concern in the case of Maidstone, the interest in these parameters was much greater in view of the fact that a natural ventilation strategy had been chosen for ward units. This paper describes a series of measurements made at Maidstone using the UMIST PCS multiple tracer gas system, and discusses the results obtained.