Practical answers for hospital ventilation challenges
Many healthcare estates are managing ageing plant, delayed refurbishments and rooms put to new clinical uses, all while ventilation standards stay as demanding as ever. Air Sentry, a UK manufacturer supplying the NHS since 2000, offers a joined-up range of ventilation equipment and monitoring built for those pressures. The products are designed to go in with little disruption, work alongside the plant you already have, and keep rooms in service while larger capital programmes catch up.
Each product solves a specific problem on its own. Together they give estates teams a flexible solution.
See it working: the Aristotle® live demo
Before reading further, try the interactive demo. It is modelled on a real unit. You can watch CO₂ climb towards 1000ppm, see the alarm trip, and see the fans step up to clear the air, then watch the reading fall back to normal. It runs on a phone as well as a desktop, so you can show it to colleagues anywhere.
The range
Aristotle® – monitoring that acts
Aristotle® is the intelligence layer. It tracks air quality in the room, including carbon dioxide, particulates and nitrous oxide, and can adjust ventilation automatically as conditions change. Estates teams get live evidence of room performance. Ventilation works harder only when it needs to, which supports energy-saving goals. It can link to building management systems and is designed to exceed BS 40102-1:2023.
Shortlisted for the Net Zero Innovation Award, IHEEM Healthcare Estates Awards 2026.
Genesis® – low-level extract
Genesis® adds extract at low level without major building work. It fits in a corner or on a wall, and can be built up with fresh air supply, HEPA recirculation or pressure control as a room’s needs change. An anti-ligature option makes it usable in higher-risk patient areas.
Shortlisted for Product Innovation of the Year, IHEEM Healthcare Estates Awards 2026.
Positive and negative pressure units
These units set up the pressure relationships that infection control relies on. Positive pressure helps protect patients with weakened immune systems. Negative pressure helps keep infectious agents contained. Wall-mounted and in-ceiling versions are available to suit the room.
Why monitoring and extract matter
NHS buildings are under strain. England’s NHS maintenance backlog has been put at around £14bn, and the National Audit Office estimates that building and infrastructure failures cause roughly 5,400 clinical service incidents every year. Ventilation sits in the middle of that picture. It is hard to see, easy to defer, and critical to patient safety.
Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People shows what’s at stake. Days before patients were due to move into the new £150m building, independent testing found that critical care ventilation fell short of the required air change rate. The move was called off. The fault was later traced back to an error in a tender document issued years earlier. The hospital finally opened in March 2021, and the delay is believed to have cost almost £17 million. The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry went on to find that the health board had never set out precisely what the ventilation system had to achieve, and had relied on the contractor’s reading of national guidance.
The common thread is simple. Performance has to be defined, measured and checked, not assumed. Air Sentry’s range supports that. Aristotle® gives estates teams live evidence of room conditions and can respond automatically as they change. Genesis® and the pressure units give engineers practical, low-disruption ways to correct a room that isn’t performing, without waiting for a major capital project.
Stronger together
Genesis® can supply the extract, the pressure units can set the pressure regime, and Aristotle® can watch conditions and drive the fans, whether your project is an interim fix for a failing air handling unit, an isolation room or a protective environment. Every product can also be added to existing HVAC rather than replacing it.
Built to last
Air Sentry equipment is UK manufactured, mostly recyclable and designed for a long working life. Service contracts include consumables, travel and annual certification, and Air Sentry operates to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. That means predictable running costs, a smaller environmental footprint and support that lasts for the life of the equipment.
Talk to us
Tell us about the room, the ward or the compliance problem and we’ll help you find the right combination. Contact Air Sentry at webrequest@airsentry.co.uk or call 01249 721422. 24-hour support is available on 01666 818087.