Can portable suction replace central vacuum in small hospitals?

What HTM 02-01 (2026 edition) says about mobile and portable suction:

• Electric suction may not be as efficient as pipeline suction in areas of regular use; where vacuum will be regularly used, a pipeline system should be installed, and mobile electric vacuum (MEV) units should be provided as an emergency supply or where the pipeline system is likely to be used infrequently (2.56).
• Mobile electric suction units are not appropriate for the main supply, because of the power consumption and efficiency of the individual pumps (10.11).
• For non-acute healthcare facilities with low vacuum demand, such as hospices and satellite dialysis units, the plant should reflect the expected usage profile, and a duplex configuration may be considered, provided that system resilience and continuity of supply are maintained; the level of resilience should be justified through risk assessment and agreed with the Authorised Person (MGPS) and the Authorising Engineer (MGPS) (10.10).
• In the example central vacuum systems of Table 21, the primary and secondary supplies are pumps of a triplex or quadruplex set and the tertiary supply is portable suction equipment with battery backup; vacuum systems may have battery or injector-driven suction as a tertiary source (2.37).

If mobile units are used

Where mobile electric suction units are proposed, HTM 02-01 asks for the Medical Gas Safety Group to be consulted and for the design to cover staff training, equipment maintenance, resilience of supply with emergency provision and backup devices, the staff resources to allocate and manage the devices, storage, charging areas with HTM 05 considerations for lithium-ion batteries, areas for testing and decontamination, critical spares, life-cycle costing, and pharmacy and clinical team considerations (10.12). Ejector suction units and other alternatives need the same considerations, plus the increased demand on, and impact on, the driving gas (10.13).

Alongside piped vacuum, MEV provision should be set by risk assessment: typically, one unit may be provided on the resuscitation trolley together with at least one MEV per 15 outlets in each non-critical ward or department with piped vacuum, and in critical care, as a general rule, one unit may be provided for every five patients (2.57, 2.58). Electrically powered medical and surgical suction equipment, including units for use in hospitals, for field use and for transport, is covered by ISO 10079-1:2022, which has an amendment of 2026.

Portugal

Portugal's ACSS ET 03/2006 (v.2024) asks for permanently connected backup supplies of oxygen, medical air and vacuum in the most critical services, operating theatres and intensive care, which start automatically if the central supply fails; the vacuum part is a compact plant of 25 to 40 m³/h installed close to the service (section 8).

ULTRAVAC

ULTRAVAC centralised medical vacuum systems are built with 1 to 12 vacuum pumps, with capacities per pump from 3 to 1,600 m³/h.