Doctor who designed plastic bubble in Covid now turning his attention to new project

The doctor who helped develop this plastic bubble around beds for patients in hospitals during the pandemic has shared his next big project – and it could go global.

Forbes McGain designed this plastic bubble – or a personal ventilation hood – during the pandemic to try and stop transmission of the virus in hospitals.

The inspiration struck him when he least expected it – while he was pushing his daughter's pram while out jogging.

The pram’s retractable hood gave him the idea to create something similar to help protect his peers on the frontline.

ICU specialist Dr Forbes McGain first took the problem of separating staff from Covid patients to Melbourne University engineer Jason Monty. Picture: Tony Gough

Now he is onto a new project – and it will change hospitals yet again.

Who is he?

University of Melbourne Associate Professor McGain is by profession an anaesthetist and intensive care physician who heads Melbourne’s Footscray Hospital’s Intensive Care Department.

He is also the university’s first Associate Dean of Sustainable Healthcare.

Prof McGain is also a self-confessed tinkerer who likes to understand how things work.

It started as a child realigning the wheels of pushbikes while growing up on an avocado and macadamia family farm in northern NSW.

Anaesthetist Forbes McGain has received a $1m NHMRC grant dedicated to sustainable healthcare. He is with Footscray Hospital theatre equipment nurse Lumi Kacic. Picture: Mark Stewart

Prof McGain has been awarded the first Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s grant for sustainable healthcare.

It is worth $1m over the next two years.

What does he plan to do with the grant?

Prof McGain will investigate five major projects.

And it could change your experience in hospital.

The five projects will be focused on:

• Instead of getting your drugs through an IV he will look at whether patients can take oral drugs in the operating theatre. This means less IV lines and bags. People may be able to also get out and about earlier.

• The air in local operating theatres is changed every 3 minutes – even when not in use.

He says it is a waste of energy and money and will look at whether it would be better to do this less often if it doesn’t affect patient safety.

• Using equipment sterilisers more efficiently and switching disposable gowns for reusable washed ones

• Looking at whether expired single-use equipment is really expired. Many items are discarded because of an expiry date stamp but are still usable. It costs tens of thousands of dollars for his health district alone. Is there a better method?

• Developing a sustainability toolkit for doctors to improve healthcare sustainability (including waste and energy).

Prof McGain said his project had the potential to change hospital practices worldwide.

“A lot of it is not rocket science, it is very practical stuff,” Prof McGain said.

Prof McGain is also part of Doctors of the Environment Australia.

“I think that’s been important, having a group of doctors who are like-minded in wanting to make change,” he said.

“The most obvious thing that I realised was I could make practical changes that would save money and have environmental benefits in my own workplace that were going to be much more profound than what I could ever do at home.”

Success for these next five projects will be, Prof McGain says, when he shows beneficial changes that are then disseminated to other hospitals in both Australia and beyond.

Originally published as Doctor who designed plastic bubble in Covid now turning his attention to new project