Nigel Keery, an IHEEM Council Member who will be well-known to many in healthcare EFM and engineering circles for his gregarious personality, enthusiasm, humour, and open, friendly manner, made clear to me during an interesting 45-minute ‘Teams’ chat that he has loved working in healthcare engineering, and that — given his time again, he would not have swapped the profession for any other. A natural ‘people person’, he says meeting a broad range of different personalities — whether a Trust CEO, an engineering technician, a healthcare architect, or an occasional VIP / Royal visitor to one of several large Belfast hospitals that he and his team look after — is something he considers a real highlight of the job. Equally, he has always loved the considerable autonomy and opportunity to use one’s initiative that healthcare engineering roles afford. As he put it: “In healthcare engineering positions you’re allowed to be a wee bit different, to think for yourself, and to take on a challenge. It can make your job so much more rewarding to be able to express an opinion based on your knowledge and expertise — for example in response to an engineering issue, and — equally — to be able to put that bit of extra effort in to get a problem solved.”
Oxygen generator development and supply
One excellent example was in the spring of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when — as part of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust Estates & Facilities team, Nigel Keery and several of his colleagues developed, and had specially manufactured in Northern Ireland, eight oxygen concentrators, at the request of Northern Ireland’s Department of Health (HSCNI). This followed the identification of ‘weaknesses in oxygen delivery and infrastructure’ at a number of hospitals there following a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, and a corresponding increase in demand for oxygen. “Northern Ireland doesn’t make any oxygen of its own; it all comes in from the Republic of Ireland,” he explained. “With the potential transport issues entailed in bringing in additional supplies from Dublin, it was a concern — if the worst case happened — that the Republic of Ireland had first call on all the available oxygen from there. In the midst of all this we also had the upheaval of leaving the EU to contend with, and the associated border uncertainty, so we had to look at how best we could supplement existing oxygen capacity not only at our own Trust’s hospital sites, but also at others across Northern Ireland.” Having in March and early April 2020 enquired about the availability of oxygen concentrators from manufacturers all over Europe, but finding none available, Nigel and his team approached companies in the Trust’s existing supply chain for help. The result was that eight concentrators — based on two different designs, were specially assembled and built for the Trust externally to tight deadlines, to two different designs — with a 500 litre / min and 1000 litre/min output, one based on a German design, and the other a UK one.
About a year later, with Northern Ireland by this time having surplus hospital oxygen stocks, three of the concentrators were flown out to India to boost oxygen supply at regional hospitals there as a gesture of UK government support. The cargo on the massive Antonov An-124 plane that took them from Belfast International Airport to Delhi on 7 May 2021 also included 1,000 British-made CPAP systems. While this project alone may not have been solely responsible for Nigel subsequently receiving an OBE for Public Services to Health — which he received proudly from King Charles at Windsor Castle on 14 February 2023— it seems certain it had a hand. It became clear during our discussion, indeed, that ‘problem-solving’ has always been an aspect of engineering that appeals to the new IHEEM President, but — as he explained — he also had engineering in his blood.
Apprenticeship at famous shipbuilder
He said: “I first got into the engineering through an electrical apprenticeship at Harland and Wolff in Belfast, the famous shipbuilder and marine engineer, starting work there in 1977 aged 16, after completing my ‘O’ Levels in Lisburn. My grandfather, father, and an uncle were all electrical engineers. I went on to become a technician, before joining Harland and Wolff’s management programme. We were manufacturing engineering components for ships and heavy industry — including — in the latter case — large generator halls, such as the ones at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital and Belfast City Hospital, where we supplied the HV switchgear, generators, and control panels, assembling, commissioning, and subsequently maintaining them.”
Nigel Keery spent 11 years at Harland and Wolff, becoming manager of the electrical test house there. I imagined that given the company’s engineering pedigree, even securing an initial apprenticeship must have been an achievement. He said: “I believe the company only took on about 10 electrical apprentices annually — from hundreds of applicants. You had to do aptitude test, and go to college and get your ONC, followed by an HNC, during the apprenticeship.”
He recalled that on visiting ‘Belfast Tech’ (or College of Technology) — as it was then known colloquially — as part of his studies, he would admire the stained glass window of the Kelvin Memorial, and ‘try and get a bit of inspiration from Lord Kelvin’, a pioneer of electrical science. The Irish-born British mathematician, mathematical physicist, and engineer, was born in Belfast, and was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years. There he undertook significant research and mathematical analysis of electricity, was instrumental in the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and contributed significantly to unifying physics, then in its infancy as an emerging academic discipline.
Nigel Keery is in no doubt that his own engineering prowess, and indeed his early interest in the subject, stemmed from his male forebears. He explained. “Like me, they all started their careers working at Harland and Wolff, before joining other businesses and consultancies. My father, Glen, for instance, worked for Honeywell for a while, and various design consultancies. My apprenticeship provided a first-class electrical engineering training. My father had always been very good with his hands, creating solutions and at explaining how things worked. At our house, he was always restoring a tractor, a car, or a piece of equipment. He was extremely gifted at fixing and making things.”
Nigel’s family lived at the time in Dromore, about 18 miles from Belfast. He explained: “Rather than catching a bus at 5.00 am every day to travel in to work, I ended up staying in Belfast in Harland and Wolff accommodation. The company was thus effectively my guardian, because I started at 16, and living nearby afforded me some fantastic opportunities — because you were always in, or near, the factory. If there was anything special happening, you were usually invited — for example to ship launches, and events with dignitaries visiting. They also had a restaurant offering unbelievable dining for customers. I thus saw, or met, many people I certainly wouldn’t have encountered had I gone home each night.”
The Westland ‘affair’
One visitor who made an impression, in the mid-1980s, was Lord Heseltine, the Defence Secretary in a Margaret Thatcher-led Conservative government. The two political heavyweights clashed publicly over a proposed rescue bid for Britain’s last helicopter manufacturer, Westland Helicopters. The Prime Minister, and her Industry Secretary, Leon Brittan, were keen to see the business merge with America’s Sikorsky, but Michael Heseltine favoured a European deal, integrating Westland with a consortium that included British Aerospace (BAe), Italian (Agusta), and French companies. Nigel Keery added: “I also remember Aristotle Onassis, the Greek / Argentine business magnate who amassed the world’s largest privately-owned shipping fleet, and for whom we built several ships, visiting the shipyard, while a number of Royals attended on different occasions to launch ships. The Harland and Wolff site, close to Belfast’s docks, housed many huge warehouses and shipbuilding halls — including some so big they had their own climate; you could sometimes have mist or fog inside from the sea. The business still operates today — both as a ship designer and manufacturer, and as a producer of ‘one off’ and quite challenging-to-produce vessels, such as those used in the offshore wind, ocean exploration, and petrochemical sectors.”
Biggest gains
Clearly a memorable 11-year spell with the shipbuilder, but I wondered what Nigel Keery thinks he gained most from his time there. He answered: “The ability to think for myself and work independently. That was particularly valuable when I worked overseas for 6-8 years for Harland and Wolff as a guarantor. Whenever a customer bought a ship,” he explained, “they would get the service of a person called a guarantor. I went on a few ships as the electrical guarantor, which meant addressing any electrical issues on the ship. You also did your watch routine with the crew, and I spent a period in Greece, taking oil storage vessels or oil tankers, and bringing them up to up to the latest pollution regulation standards. They were then used for oil storage and oil brokering. As the guarantor you were on the ship representing the manufacturer. There was usually a mechanical engineer and sometimes a naval architect, plus also an electrical engineer on board. Your job was to stay with the ship for up to a year. I ended up on so many ships my passport got full with stamps. By the time I left Harland and Wolff I was the Electrical Test House Commissioning manager, and one of the company’s youngest senior managers.”
In 1989, after 11 enjoyable and educative years at Harland and Wolff, Nigel Keery felt he wanted to ‘diversify’ and broaden his experience. He explained: “Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital had a central generator system with HV generators which Harland and Wolff maintained, and I was asked if I’d think about taking a job in the health service. At the time I was thinking about emigrating to Canada, so I initially saw the job as something of a stopgap. However, once I started in the NHS, I never looked back.”
Joining the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust as a Works officer — a management grade, he progressed to Divisional manager in the Estates Department at the Royal Victoria Hospital, before later becoming Head of Estates Operations. He explained: “In 1990 Northern Ireland’s health service rationalised its estate, going from approximately 16 hospitals to five Trusts, and I was appointed Head of Estates Operations for the Belfast Trust in 2012. It is now one of Europe’s biggest such organisations, with 22,000 employees, and a £1.6 bn budget. The Trust was formed from the amalgamation of six Trusts, and with it now encompassing health and social care, not only do we look after acute and other hospitals, but also community facilities — such as doctors’ surgeries, dentists, and health and wellbeing centres, right across Belfast, representing about 50% of the Northern Irish healthcare system.”
I wondered how the role had changed. He said: “Hospitals have certainly become more complex, technology has changed, and continues to evolve rapidly, and the expectations, and — correspondingly — the skills in healthcare engineering and estate management have grown. The standards and regulations on the condition of the estate are far higher, with, the expectancy both of minimal downtime, and that plant and equipment will function both optimally and sustainably.”
A pressurised role
Nigel Keery has around 200 staff reporting to him, plus external contractors across Belfast. I reckoned it must be a very pressurised role. “It has been at times,” he acknowledged, “but you grow into it. When you’ve worked in the field for so long and have the support of a good team, things that would have really stressed you once become the norm, but there is pressure, without doubt. Things happen quickly, and sometimes unexpectedly, but when you have a committed and able team with great competencies and skills, you know you’ve got the right resources and people to deal with anything that’s put in front of them.” I asked which main hospitals the Trust’s Estates team is responsible for maintaining. Nigel said: “The Royal group of hospitals, Belfast City Hospital, Musgrave Park Hospital, and the Mater Hospital, Knockbracken Hospital, and Muckamore Hospital.”
The Trust’s estate ranges in age from around 1890 to modern-day. Nigel Keery explained: “In our old estate, we still have the world’s first air-conditioning system, at the Royal Victoria, while in the Victorian part, there is a steam engine still working, although not used. The architects for the Royal Victoria Hospital were William Henman and Thomas Cooper, the builders McLaughlin & Harvey, and the mechanical and electrical engineer Henry Lea. They won a competition to design the building, and the air-conditioning was installed because the architect decided he needed some engineering assistance, and brought in Henry Lea. The Royal Victoria was completed in 1903.”
Memorable moments
I asked about some of his most memorable moments, and some of the biggest challenges, in his time with the Trust. He said: “The role brings many challenges — from new-build construction to changes in technology and guidance. Particularly with such a large site, and so many wards, the impact of — for example — the HTM on medical gases — where instead of using oxygen bottled gas reserves we have several liquid storage VIEs with an interlinked network, was significant. I’ve also got involved on the committees and the authoring groups for HTMs over the years. Constructing new buildings is always a challenge; getting a building from concept specification to design, and then commissioned outcome, is a significant task — especially in an acute healthcare environment.”
He continued: “The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly difficult in Northern Ireland, because we have no manufacture of liquid oxygen; we can’t make any gas here. Our oxygen for hospital use thus all came in from The Republic of Ireland, which was part of the EU, whereas we weren’t, which led us into a vulnerability, explaining why we had the eight oxygen generators manufactured locally.
Graduate training programme initiated
“One of the biggest things I’ve been involved in,” he added, “was starting up the graduate training programme for healthcare engineers we now have in Northern Ireland — because we’ve found it very difficult to attract young management engineers. We took on trainee engineers, who did a two-year placement, and were then brought in as junior engineers. We recruited staff with electrical and mechanical and building services degrees, and the scheme was subsequently rolled out across Northern Ireland. It has worked well; we now have high-level people who undertook the training in every hospital. We’ve since extended the scheme to entrants who have either been in service or have a Foundation Degree or HNC, but may have minimal trade knowledge. We call it a technician training scheme, and it runs parallel to the graduate training scheme.”
One of the most memorable single days in Nigel Keery’s career must have been 14 February 2023 when — having been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2022, he received an OBE for Services to Public Health from King Charles (who was by then King, but had yet to be crowned), at Windsor Castle. I wondered whether he feels the OBE was largely attributable to his work during the pandemic. He said: “In fact they don’t tell you. Someone must put you forward, and I was fortunate that with more than one nomination, my name must have risen higher up the ranking.”
He added: “While I’m very proud of my OBE, hearing I was to receive it was initially a bit of a shock. You then wonder: ‘Why me, and not others in my team?’ Much of the time in a healthcare engineering or estate management role you’re part of a team, and although you may be leading its direction, it’s a collective effort, so it was very humbling.”
I wondered what he thought might be some of his key priorities as IHEEM’s new President. He replied: “I would say the membership, people, and branches; ‘putting back in’ to the Institute, investing resource — in terms both of time and direction. I think we need to better communicate with our members, and improve access to key information for them. Our conferences and seminars are really important here, but so are the quality and content of our branch meetings. I think some of the less active branches need encouragement, but remember that everything’s voluntary. It’s thus OK to have good ideas, but they must be deliverable.” I asked if he had any particular ideas on ways this could be better achieved? He said: “The first thing you have to do is chat; reach out, network, have the communication, and see what the branches’ thoughts and desires are, before deciding how best the Institute can help.”
The President’s role in communication
I asked him what he thinks is the most useful part the President can play in this? He said: “You have a CEO running the business, setting the direction, and managing the day-to-day running. The President is there to support that role and help with advice and thoughts on direction, and to give others a steer about the Institute, what it stands for, and what it can achieve. I’ve been part of the Institute from the age of 29, and am now 63, and a Fellow. Membership has given me enormous professional, social, and personal opportunities and benefits, largely through networking and meeting people. As I have grown into an experienced healthcare professional, being an IHEEM member has been key.
“I’ve met some unbelievable people, many of whom who I’d consider mentors, but most have simply been individuals who have given freely of their time, taken an interest, and encouraged me. I hope I’m now at the stage to do similarly for others — through branches and through my enthusiasm, because improvements only happen if we make them happen.” He continued: “It just takes a few people, at different times, to do a little, and in conjunction with others, this makes a big contribution.”
A rapidly changing world
I asked about any other priorities he has identified as IHEEM President. He said: “I think the world has changed. There are so many challenges globally. We’re in a world of global complexities, but what we must do in our professional careers is build an organisation of resilience. IHEEM should have resilience and business continuity, and be looking continuously at how we can best meet and address these challenges — everything from COVID to the unstable situation in the Ukraine and Europe, and the changes in trading partners around the world. There’s also a potential significant political upheaval on the horizon, depending on who wins the US Presidential election. So, there are lots of macroeconomic challenges. Amidst all this, the ‘ordinary’ healthcare sector employee simply has to get on and do their best; the NHS never closes, and we have to keep going. Patients come in daily, and families rely on us. I think we learnt a lot through COVID about creating a sustainable business environment. A large part of the Institute’s role is thus about equipping the membership through seminars and conferences and our branch activities, and ensuring that engineers and construction professionals have the right tools and the knowledge to cope with the challenges. Two especially notable current ones,” he added, “are the drive to achieve Net Zero, and the part the construction chain and the EFM sector can play in combating antimicrobial resistance through improving the built environment.”
With our discussions taking place just days after publication of the ‘final report’ on London’s Grenfell Tower, I asked the new IHEEM President for his early impressions of the findings, and about the potential impact on the regulatory regime for fire safety in high-rise buildings, including in healthcare. He said: “It’s extremely sad that 72 people lost their lives during an incident we now know was preventable. However, the preventable is complex — because there were so many areas of failure — from the cladding material, through to its testing, certification, and its use on the building, how it was installed, the people that managed that, those that did the checking from various bodies to ensure things were done right, through to the fire service and the way it managed the evacuation and dealt with the fire. The ‘recovery period’ following Grenfell will be long and sore, as we’ve seen from other incidents like this — another one being the 1987 King’s Cross Fire (when a lit match dropped onto a wooden escalator at London’s King’s Cross Underground station set fire to grease, litter, and dust, that had accumulated under the escalator over the years). I mention this as I knew Professor Crossland, the Chair of the Enquiry, who inspired me through his discussions. As an Estates or engineering professional working in the built environment, it seems to take something to happen to effect change for the better and to regulate. Hopefully the regulations that emerge from this will improve all building structures.
People at their most vulnerable
“Certainly,” Nigel Keery continued, “whenever people are sleeping, both in a hospital and at home, they’re at their most vulnerable, which makes it an absolute imperative to have buildings where people sleep that are as safe as possible.”
I next asked Nigel Keery what he would say to encourage somebody considering a career in healthcare engineering or estate management, but pondering their options. “Well,” he said, “it’s such a vast field that there is something there for everybody — whether you’re in a building, engineering, architecture, or FM role. The strength of an Estates Department is the diversity of the staff, i.e. their different degrees, personalities, aptitudes, and backgrounds, all coming in and contributing to the team. I have always found this exceptionally rewarding. I look forward to being IHEEM’s President, and to sharing that enthusiasm and encouragement with lots of young people coming in.”
Nigel Keery took over the Presidency at IHEEM’s 2024 AGM in Manchester from another highly committed engineer, and a champion both of careers in the field, but also the role of women in healthcare engineering and estates and facilities management, and equality and diversity — Mott MacDonald’s Alison Ryan, who was also IHEEM’s first female President. I asked him what he thought her biggest achievements as President had been. He said: “Alison has done some really interesting things, for instance with all the STEM work she has undertaken in schools and colleges. She’s been a role model and a tremendous advocate for women in healthcare, and equality and diversity, with a particular passion for these things, which is good both for the Institute, and for healthcare. She has steered the ship well, is certainly a good mentor for me going forward, and has offered me all the support and help she can.”
Nigel Keery and his wife, Mandy, live in County Down; they have been married for 27 years, having known each other since their schooldays. “I also have a 23-year-old daughter, Natasha, and a son Gregory, who is 22,” he explained. “Natasha is a biomedical engineer in Belfast, and currently doing her ‘year out’ at the Belfast Trust. She has a Foundation degree in Mechatronics. Gregory has completed the same Foundation Degree course, but is now studying for a Building Services degree on day release, and is a trainee technician here in the Trust.”
I asked Nigel: “Do you feel it’s almost like the family line now to go into healthcare engineering?” He said: “Gregory always wanted to go into the profession — probably from seeing what I did in my role. He wanted to join the Estates team in Belfast, and perhaps thought he could do a better job than his dad. Natasha got interested in biomedical engineering, and pretty well by chance did her placement in Belfast. I don’t know if she sees her long-term future being in the health service. It might be more in industry.”
I said: “Interesting though, that your children have followed in your footsteps, as you did with your father, grandfather, and uncle. You’ve come from a long line of engineers.” Nigel Keery said: “Well, I do a lot of what my father and grandfather did — tinker with a lot of machinery, and I certainly encourage both my son and daughter, and my colleagues, to aim high, voice their opinions on engineering challenges, and to think for themselves.”
I closed by asking Nigel Keery: “Is your passion for engineering as strong as it was when you first set foot in the profession?” He answered: “Yes, I couldn’t be in a better job. Despite being 63, I’m only really getting the hang of it after 34 years in the field,” he said with a smile. “I still love meeting different people, talking about things, and for example — when I’ve talked to you — it’s sometimes resulted in a journal article.
Being yourself and ‘a wee bit different’
“In this profession you’re allowed to be a wee bit different, to think for yourself, and to take on a challenge safe in the knowledge you have others’ backing. These have always been major attractions of the job to me. I’m fortunate indeed to have had a great, and a very fulfilling, career.”