Podcasts about HSE

Conti's notoriety grows when they target hundreds of hospitals around the world. Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) is hacked and a cancer patient is left fearing for her life.The topic of attacks on the healthcare sector seems to divide Conti and ruptures begin to form. As the attack on Ireland brings international condemnation, a team of cyber security experts battles to bring the HSE back online.

Mother of two Leona Macken is living with incurable Stage Four Cervical Cancer. She talks to Claire about receiving an apology and settlement from the HSE after she learnt that abnormalities on smear test result analyses were missed. She speaks about the need for further improvements to the National Screening Programme.

Neil speaks to heartbroken Father Craig Coady following HSE meeting yesterday.

After yesterday's delay on a decision on Skyclarys, Craig Coady calls on the HSE to show urgency and compassion over the life-changing drug, warning PJ that he is prepared to leave Ireland for the sake of his son Paudie's future Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Health Minister is being accused of leaving Clare "at a standstill" ahead of the Dáil recess on Thursday. More than four months on from the announcement that the HSE has purchased a 44-acre site in Raheen in Limerick for the purpose of developing a new hospital campus, the hospital development board has yet to be established. As well as making decisions relating to the Raheen facility, the board will oversee the expansion of services at Ennis, Nenagh and St John's. Friends of Ennis Hospital spokesperson Angela Coll says nothing can be progressed at the Midwest's smaller hospitals until the board is assembled.

Kerry is experiencing some of the hottest weather in the country, one family resource centre has taken the unprecedented step of putting in place their emergency weather protocols. Our reporter Laura Whelan spoke to Nora Lucid, the manager of the Buds Family Centre and Michael Hanrahan Public Health Consultant with the HSE southwest.

Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer of the HSE has advice on managing the hotter days of summer. He has practical tips around staying cool, sleeping, hydration, suncream and tells us why we should all know the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

First time drug offenders will be referred to the Health Service Executive from September instead of being pursued through the courts. To explain how this will work, Professor Eamon Keenan, HSE's National Clinical Lead on Addiction Services.

Linda Hughes, Met Eireann; Dr Caitriona Kelly, Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the HSE; Ciaran Nugent, Regional Forestry Inspector with the Department of Agriculture; and Jaime Valesquez, Correspondent in Spain

The Government has asked the HSE for a report on e-scooter injuries. This is in response to a surge in serious injuries to children linked to e-scooters. How are other countries dealing with e-scooters, and are regulations any more lax here? To discuss further with Jonathan was Conor Faughnan, Transport Commentator and Independent Motoring Expert for Carzone.

When you start looking into GLP-1s and weight loss drugs, the amount of information, both good and bad, can become quite confusing.National Clinical Lead for Obesity at the HSE, Donal O'Shea, joins Shane to cut through the noise and discuss what you should know.

The Government has asked the HSE for a report on e-scooter injuries. This is in response to a surge in serious injuries to children linked to e-scooters. How are other countries dealing with e-scooters, and are regulations any more lax here? To discuss further with Jonathan was Conor Faughnan, Transport Commentator and Independent Motoring Expert for Carzone.

Tá sé deimhnigh ag Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhísí sláinte don Chlár seo go ndearnadh ionsaí cibéar ar chóras comhlachta a bhíonn ag cuir seirbhísí priontála Cártaí an HSE ar fáil.

The new pilot scheme in Limerick is between the Gardaí and the HSE and is known as CAST - Community Access Support Teams. Professor Owen Doody from the University of Limerick's School of Nursing and Midwifery is the independent evaluator for the project.

A new full-time intellectual disability respite centre could soon be coming to Shannon. Corlann, formerly known as the Brothers of Charity has applied to develop a facility at Gleann-na-Smól that would operate seven days a week. Presently the service only provides two days of respite per week , but has received HSE funding to expand its offering. Shannon Fine Gael Councillor Tony Mulcahy says it would make a huge difference for families in the locality.

Cliona Murphy, HSE, discusses issues raised by Dr Peter Boylan, and women in labour.

Former Master of the National Maternity Hospital Peter Boylan has strongly criticised the HSE's labour guidelines. Warning they are putting women at risk. Peter joined Anton to discuss this further.

Former Master of the National Maternity Hospital, Professor Peter Boylan, told Newstalk Breakfast that Ireland's new labour guidelines may be putting women at risk.Under the updated HSE guidance, women in the latent phase of labour may not be admitted to a labour ward until they are around 4cm dilated, with some advised to continue labouring at home. Critics argue that because many women cannot accurately judge cervical dilation themselves, this approach could delay access to hospital care and increase the risk of complications.So, do you think we need to change our approach to labour for safer outcomes?Joining Andrea to discuss is Birth and Postpartum Doula, Roberta Hynes and listeners.

Former Master of the National Maternity Hospital Peter Boylan has strongly criticised the HSE's labour guidelines. Warning they are putting women at risk. Peter joined Anton to discuss this further.

Nurses and midwives at University Maternity Hospital Limerick took to the picket line yesterday in protest over what the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation describes as critically low staffing levels.   The union says frontline posts have been lost, workloads have become unsustainable and patient safety is under increasing pressure.   The HSE, however, says staffing levels comply with agreed standards and that recruitment for additional posts is underway.   Joining Alan Morrissey earlier was Mary Fogarty, Assistant Director of Industrial Relations for the INMO in the Midwest. Photo (c) ADRIAN BUTLER

Officials from the HSE, Department of Health and the Rotunda Hospital are to appear before the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee later this morning. The the issue of the public only consultant Contract is up for discussion.Speaking to Anton ahead of the meeting was the Committee Chair and Social Democrats TD for Cork South Central Pádraig Rice.

Officials from the HSE, Department of Health and the Rotunda Hospital are to appear before the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee later this morning. The the issue of the public only consultant Contract is up for discussion.Speaking to Anton ahead of the meeting was the Committee Chair and Social Democrats TD for Cork South Central Pádraig Rice.

A Clare senator says there's "merit" in a proposal for an air ambulance base in Clare. The call has been made by the Friends of Ennis Hospital campaign group following the airlifting of a GAA player from the Loop Head Peninsula to University Hospital Limerick last week. According to HSE data, one fifth of air ambulance call-outs nationwide come from the Midwest region. Speaking in the Seanad, Ennistymon Senator Martin Conway says many parts of West Clare are simply too far away the Dooradoyle facility.

Everyone who goes to work should have the right to go home after work. This is a sentiment that wasn't necessarily formally recognised until the 1970's here in the UK.   Health & Safety often gets mocked for overly cautious or seemingly onerous tasks to meet certain regulations and Standards today, however these are in place for a reason. They save lives, plain and simple. In this episode, Ian Battersby makes the case for Health & Safety regulations, including why they were introduced, events that sparked the conversation for workplace safety and the impact regulations have had since their introduction. You'll learn ·      The decline in ISO 45001 adoption ·      The Health and Safety at Work Act ·      How much difference has this Act made since its introduction? ·      How do the US and UK differ in their approach to safety regulations?  ·      What events led to the creation of safety regulations in the UK? ·      Addressing broader health and safety risks – illness and long-term damage as a result of work ·      How to make health & safety manageable   Resources ·      HSE ·      ISO 45001 Support ·      Isologyhub   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – Ian Battersby makes the case for modern Health & Safety regulations, sharing why they were introduced, how they've impacted workplace safety statistics and how you can make health & safety more manageable.    [03:30] The decline in ISO 45001 adoption – From our standpoint as consultants, there has been less adoption of ISO 45001 when compared to other Standard such as ISO 9001 or ISO 27001. In years previous, it was a common Standard to implement either with or straight after ISO 9001. There are a number of reasons for this, including: ·      The appetite for ISO 45001 has reduced in favour of newer Standards ·      Supply chains not proposing it as a requirement ·      Our particular client base feel they are low risk in their respective industries To be fair, health and safety does get a bad reputation for being overbearing. It's been subject to many attacks from various media and lobbying groups, however, it's necessary to ensure we all stay safe at work. Let's look at some history… [05:00] The Health & Safety At Work Act: This act received Royal Assent in the UK on 31 July 1974, and came into force on 1 April 1975. To an extent it replaced and improved upon previous laws covering separate industries and activities: Factories, Mines & Quarries, Agriculture, etc It was enacted in response to a recognition that, although conditions for workers had improved over the century, there was still completely unnecessary harm being caused to many in the country's workforce. This is also the point when the Health and Safety Executive was formally established to enforce the law. It also provides a wealth of guidance to businesses, so we highly recommend checking out their website. They also have the legal duty to collect consolidated data on workplace injuries for the UK, and have provided an annual report since it's inception in 1975. [07:45] How much difference has this Act made since its introduction? In the year to 31/03/1975 when consolidated data was first recorded there were 651 deaths at work. The equates to more than 2.5 deaths in a single year per 100,000 workers. Comparatively, in 2024/25 124 people died in work, and while that's 124 too many, it's a big improvement. The rate per 100,000 workers is now 0.37, and you have to bear in mind that the workforce has grown, but overall that's a reduction of over 85%. [09:10] How do the US and UK differ in their approach to safety regulations? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) serves similar purpose in USA as HSE, but they have important differences in approach and independence. The HSE is independent of government to an extent and has no ministerial control, whereas OSHA sits within the Dept of Labor. It can also be argued that the OSHA approach is prescriptive in setting rules whereas HSE follows the more outcome-based principles of HASAWA: to reduce risk "so far as is reasonably practicable", which some argue is more sophisticated and produces better results. OSHA has also seen its powers to intervene, investigate and enforce curtailed at times due to certain political interests.   Looking at the numbers, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics published fatality rates for 2024: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries: There were 5,070 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2024, down 4.0% from 5,283 in 2023. The fatal work injury rate was 3.3 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2024, a decrease from 3.5 in 2023. That rate is notably higher than Great Britain's — 3.3 per 100,000 versus 0.37 — though the two figures aren't directly comparable. The BLS uses full-time equivalent workers as the denominator and covers a broader range of incident types, while the HSE's RIDDOR series uses a headcount of all workers and has specific exclusions (road traffic accidents, air and sea travel, etc.). The methodological differences mean a like-for-like comparison requires some care. [13:35] What events led to the creation of safety regulations in the UK? In the days of Victorian Britain, it's difficult to view the common working man, woman AND child as anything other than a commodity. Thousands died every year in industrial accidents during this era, and large-scale accidents in many industries weren't uncommon. Mining was particularly tragic, a few events include: ·      The Oaks Colliery explosion of 1866 killed around 360 men and boys. ·      Hartley Colliery in 1862 trapped and killed 204 miners when the single shaft collapsed (but individual deaths from falls, gas explosions, and equipment failures happened constantly and attracted no particular attention) ·      The Abercarn Colliery explosion in Monmouthshire (1878) killed 268 men. ·      The Albion Colliery explosion at Cilfynydd in Wales (1894) killed 290. These were not exceptional events, they were part of a continuous toll. In the 1860s alone, over 1,000 miners died annually in Britain. Textile mills, ironworks, shipyards, and construction sites all had very high casualty rates. Factory machinery had no guards. Children routinely worked in spaces too small for adults, climbing inside machinery to clean it while it was still running, or crawling under looms. Mill workers lost fingers, hands, and arms with regularity. The end of the Victorian era saw attempts at regulation, but without true enforcement. The Factories Act didn't appear until 1933 and it was bitterly opposed by many owners of mines and mills. Modern regulations exist today to prevent the tragedies of the past from happening again, they were hard fought for by workers and lobbyists, and in some ways we're still fighting to include the broader impacts work can have on an individual. [16:45] Addressing broader health and safety risks – This is in relation to harm accumulated over a lifetime of work with long-term and often fatal consequences. The suffering caused to workers exposed to hazardous conditions is immeasurable. For example, let's look at asbestos. The dangers of working with asbestos were recognised remarkably early, as far back as 1890s in France, and Asbestosis was formally recognised in 1930. This led to regulation in 1931, but only applying to the asbestos textile industry, excluding all the industries where its use was widespread such as construction, shipbuilding, anyone working in insulation etc Worse still, it wasn't even enforced! Then take mesothelioma, the distinctive and almost invariably fatal cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen. The connection between asbestos and mesothelioma was established in SA in 1960 when mining blue asbestos. Further research in the UK firmly established the link in the 60s. From the mid-60s, headlines were being made nationally when shipyard workers from the war era stared dying in large numbers. Unions began lobbying for protections and media coverage continued for years as cases multiplied across several areas and industries. Nevertheless, its manufacture and use continued. The Asbestos (Licensing) Regulations 1983 introduced licensing for the most hazardous asbestos removal work. Blue asbestos (crocidolite) was banned in 1985, followed by brown asbestos (amosite) in 1986, though white asbestos (chrysotile) remained legal until 1999. In the interim and since then thousands of people died and multiple legal cases have ensued. 2218 people died of mesothelioma alone in 2023. Altogether it's estimated that workplace-related lung disease and cancers kill as many 13000 per year in the UK. Several thousand more are known to die of non-lung-related occupational diseases each year, but these aren't recorded as workplace deaths on certificates, so these people aren't included in HSE annual reporting. It doesn't stop at deaths either, there is an argument for the detriment that certain work can have on quality of life. Incidents and conditions such as: ·      accidents causing amputation and fracture ·      eye conditions from welding and other light sources ·      Deafness and hearing difficulties ·      HAVS, vibration white finger ·      Skin conditions from exposure ·      Musculoskeletal in low risk environments None of these are terminal and so often go unreported.   [23:25] How to make Health & Safety manageable – Some consider modern health and safety regulations to be over the top, but overarching law in the UK has the principle 'As Far As Is Reasonably Practicable'. One common area is in risk assessment, The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations states: "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of— (a)      the risks to the health and safety Where the employer employs five or more employees, they shall record— (a)          the significant findings of the assessment" The keyword being 'significant' there. If you work in lower risk industries, you aren't being forced to make unnecessary risk assessments, only when significant risks are present do you need to complete a risk assessment. For more guidance, check out the HSE guidance on office-based risk assessments. [25:55] Ian poses a question: Can you seriously say that the drop in deaths and injuries suffered by the common worker would have dropped at the rate it has without regulatory intervention?  Can all employers (or other vested interests) be trusted to do the right thing through good will and voluntary mechanisms alone? If you'd like any assistance with your ISO 45001 Implementation or need any additional ISO Support, contact us, we'd be happy to help. We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

HSE Chief Financial Officer Tim Brown joins the podcast for a candid look at the financial challenges facing the Hamilton Southeastern School District. We dig into the district's overall budget picture, declining enrollment, and Senate Enrolled Act 1 — the 2025 Indiana property tax law reshaping how schools are funded. Brown also breaks down the district's budget-cutting committee and roughly $7.8 million in identified reductions, new fees coming for the 2026-2027 school year, and the operating referendum headed to voters on the November 3 ballot. Essential listening for HSE parents, taxpayers, and anyone following local school finances.

The HSE got confirmation on Friday that the Health Information and Quality Authority will register the new Killarney Community Nursing Unit from today. HSE South West hopes a phased transfer to the new unit will begin on July 13th, pending the outcome of a ballot by INMO. Jerry spoke to Kathryn Courtney of the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation.

Health Correspondent, Fergal Bowers reports on an internal HSE audit into the implementation of the public-only consultant contract.

Damien McCallion, Chief Technology and Transformation Officer at the HSE joins Jess to explain the functionality of the new HSE Health app and how it helps both the patients and the system.

For this week's Tech Takeover, Jess Kelly, Newstalk's Technology Correspondent joins Ciara to discuss the new update for the HSE health app, and what it means for you.

This bonus episode of Rethinking EHS, Season 3 focuses on the invisible cultural factors that shape organisational risk and safety performance. The discussion highlights how companies can have strong procedures, audits, and compliance systems in place while still experiencing serious incidents because underlying cultural issues remain unresolved. Through real-world examples, the episode explores how communication breakdowns, siloed decision-making, and inconsistent leadership behaviours can undermine even the most mature EHS programs. Ultimately, the episode underscores that strong safety culture requires more than documentation and compliance — it depends on leadership alignment, open communication, consistent behaviours, and a long-term investment in people. Guest quotes: Alizabeth Smith: “The risk they hadn't controlled, the risk they hadn't looked at, was cultural.” Alizabeth Smith: “If you don't deal with communication and consistency, people start believing the program will change in six months anyway.” Timestamps: 00:00:00 – Introduction to cultural risk management  00:00:33 – Case study: when strong systems still failed  00:01:25 – Identifying cultural breakdowns and lack of trust  00:02:46 – Communication silos in large organisations  00:03:55 – Building a global risk register and consistent controls  00:05:00 – Why onboarding and training often fall short  00:06:09 – Wearables, micro-training, and new approaches to engagement  00:07:27 – Executive incentives and unintended reporting behaviours  00:09:39 – Leading indicators versus lagging indicators  00:11:44 – Case study: transforming culture in a global manufacturing company  00:15:04 – Developing future EHS leadership internally  00:15:51 – Closing reflections  Sponsor Copy Rethinking EHS is brought to you by the Inogen Alliance. Inogen Alliance is a global network of 70+ companies providing environment, health, safety, and sustainability services, working together to provide one point of contact to guide multinational organizations to meet their global commitments locally. Visit inogenalliance.com to learn more. Links https://Inogenalliance.com/resources  https://Inogenalliance.com/podcast  Keith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-knoke-27587a7  Alizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alizabeth-aramowicz-smith-61618615/  Produced by https://madcontent.co.nz/

Naomi James (38) was pregnant with her fourth child when, disillusioned with Ireland's maternity services, she chose to give birth at home without medical assistance.Shortly after her baby was born at home in Drogheda in June 2024, she became ill and was taken to hospital, where she died.Naomi was just one of an unknown but growing number of women in Ireland who opt for a free birth, – to have their babies without a midwife or doctor present.Such is the concern over free births that the State's directors of midwifery have warned the HSE that such births are linked with “perinatal and maternal mortality and severe morbidity”.So what is driving this choice? How are home births different from free births? What role do online free birth influencers play in this dangerous movement? And how has Naomi's family coped since her tragic death?Irish Times reporter Ellen Coyne investigated free births in Ireland, and the people advocating them.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jerry spoke to Kathryn Courtney, Industrial Relations Executive with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. The INMO has served a notice of industrial action on the HSE over proposed staffing levels at the Killarney Community Nursing Unit, which has yet to open.

Today is the deadline for the Rotunda Hospital to provide the HSE with an audit of all private work being carried out by consultants on public only contracts in the hospital. It follows revelations at an Oireachtas committee last week that this practice is continuing despite a direction it was to stop. Anton discusses further with Joe Neville, Fine Gael TD for Kildare North.

The board of the Rotunda has until close of business today to give the HSE a list of public-only consultants who have been given permission to continue providing private practice at the maternity hospital.It comes after the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill turned down an invitation for a meeting with the board of the hospital, with the Department of Health saying no such meeting would be agreed to until the Rotunda backed down.For more on this, Shane is joined by Priscilla Lynch, Clinical Editor with the Medical Independent and Brenda Power, Columnist with The Irish Independent.

Tomorrow is the deadline set by Health Minister Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill for the Rotunda Maternity Hospital to provide the HSE with an audit of the private work being carried out by consultants on public-only contracts. Paul was joined by David Cullinane, Sinn Féin's health spokesperson and one of the party's two TDs in Waterford.

Yesterday, board members of the Rotunda Hospital defied the Health minster by refusing to accept a government order to halt public-only consultants caring for private patients. The number of consultant obstetricians on public contracts at the hospitals is small, but it is reported that the hospital wishes to make a stand as a matter of principle. The dispute could see HSE funding for the rotunda withdrawn. Joining Pat for more on this was Dr Peter Boylan, former master of the National Maternity Hospital and former chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Marie Sherlock, Labour Party health spokesperson, discusses HSE data which shows 5,500 more people were hospitalised following road traffic incidents over almost a decade when compared to Gardai/RSA serious injuries figures.

Brenda Power, columnist with the Sunday Independent and Irish Daily Mail; Tony O'Brien, former Director General of the HSE; Phil Ní Sheaghadh, General Secretary of the INMO; Cian O'Carroll, solicitor who specialises in medical negligence

HSE national clinical lead on addiction Professor Eamon Keenan has warned an influx of synthetic cannabis products is causing more individuals to present with mental health problems. We discussed this issue further withJo-hanna Ivers, Professor of Addiction at School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin.

The HSE has apologised unreservedly for the ‘deficits in care' which it said culminated in the untimely and tragic death of a 25-year-old woman, Maxine Maguire in February 2017. For more on this our Health Correspondent, Fergal Bowers.

Clare's Opposition TD says the Government is taking advantage of the good will of ordinary people when it comes to home care support. Data provided by the HSE to Shannon Sinn Féin Deputy Donna McGettigan shows 314 people in Clare are currently waiting for home care support, up from 304, 18 months ago. This amounts to 1,871 of home care hours. Deputy McGettigan says it's an indictment of the State.

It's being argued a new analysis of healthcare data points to decades of underinvestment in healthcare in the midwest. The Friends of Ennis Hospital group has completed a comparative analysis of Ireland's major Model 4 hospitals using HSE workforce, activity and capacity data. Among the findings are that University Hospital Limerick has had the highest emergency department attendances, emergency admissions and admissions per acute bed and per consultant so far this year. Friends of Ennis Hospital spokesperson Angela Coll says staff at the region's main hospital are under undue pressure due to the inadequate allocation of resources.

The new HSE protocol hopes to tackle long waiting lists for Assessments of Need (AON) for autistic people. However, The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has “several significant concerns” and will not endorse the new protocol in place.Joining Shane to discuss this is Dr Patricia Byrne from the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland.

Pete Andrews from EchoBolt joins to discuss ultrasonic bolt inspection, the Bolt Wave device, and blade stud defect detection. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Pete Andrews: Pete, welcome to the program. Good to be back. Yeah. See you face to face. Yeah. Yes. This is wonderful. It’s a really great event to catch it with loads of the. UK innovation that are happening in the supply chain. So it’s, yeah, really nice to be here.  Allen Hall: This is really good to meet in person because we have seen a lot of bolt issues in the us, Canada, Australia, yeah. Uh, all around the world and every time bolt problems come up, I say, have you called Pete Andrews and Echo Bolt and gotten the kit to detect bolt issues? And then who’s Pete? Give me Pete’s phone number. Okay, sure. Uh, but now that we’re here in person, a lot has changed since we first talked to you probably two years ago.[00:01:00] You’re a bootstrap company based in the UK that has global presence, and I, I think it’s a good start to explain what the technology is and why Echo Bolt matters so much in today’s world.  Pete Andrews: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, as you said, we’re a uk, um, SME, there’s a team of 13 of us based here in the uk. Yeah. But we do deliver our services internationally, but really focused on Northern Europe. Yeah. But increasingly we’ve done more in the US and North America, a little bit in Canada. Um, but our big offering really is to help wind turbine operators and owners reduce the need to routinely retire in bulks. So we have a quick and simple inspection technology that people can deploy, find out the status of their bolt connections, and then. Reti them if necessary, but the vast majority of the time we find that they’re static and absolutely fine and can be left [00:02:00] alone. So it’s a real big efficiency boost for wind operators.  Joel Saxum: Well, you’re doing things by prescription now, right? Instead of just blanket cover, we’re gonna do all of this. It’s like, let’s work on the ones that actually need to be worked on. Let’s do the, the work that we actually need to, and instead of lugging, like we’re looking at the kit right here, and I can, you can hold the case in one hand, let alone the tools in a couple of fingers. As opposed to torque tensioning tools that are this big, they weigh a hundred kilos, and those come with all of their own problems. So I know that you guys said you’re, you’re focused here. You do a lot of work, um, in the offshore wind world as well. Yeah. I mean, offshore wind is where you add a zero right? To zeros. Yeah. Everything else is that much more complicated. It costs that much more. It’s you’re transitioning people offshore to the transition pieces. Like there’s so much more HSE risk, dollar risk, all of these different spend things. So. The Echo Bolt systems, these different tools that you have being developed and utilized here first make absolute sense, but now you guys are starting to go to onshore as well.  Pete Andrews: Yeah, that’s right. So I mean, as as you said, that there’s really [00:03:00] three main benefit areas we focus on. The first one is the health and safety of technicians, right? As you said, some of the fasteners used offshore now are up to MA hundred. So a hundred millimeter diameter bolts,  Joel Saxum: four inches for our American friends. Yeah, absolutely.  Pete Andrews: And they probably weigh. 30 kilos plus per bolt. Yeah. Um, so just the physical manual handling of that sort of equipment and the tightening equipment for those bolts is a huge risk for people. If you think 150 bolts lifting or maneuvering, the tooling around on on its own can cause all the problems. So as well as the inherent risk of the hydraulic kit failing. So occasionally we see catastrophic tool failure. Is, which have really high potential severity, you know, sort of tensioner heads ejecting or crush injuries from Tor. So that is really a key focus for our customers, just to [00:04:00] keep their teams safe, but also you have to be the cost effective and the the major cost benefit we allow is that we don’t have to revisit every bolt and every turbine like you’d have to do if you were retyping. So we believe there’s something of the order of a million pounds per installed gigawatt saving. By moving from a routine REIT uh, maintenance strategy to a focused condition based inspection, you significantly reduce the amount of intervention you make and keep your turbines running more and reduce the boots on the ground on the turbine. So three real kind of, um, key. Benefits for people adopting our technology  Allen Hall: because we routinely see tower bolts being reworked or retention depending on who the manufacturer is. And I’m watching this go on. I’m like, why are [00:05:00] we doing this? It seems, or the 10% rule, we’re tighten 10% this year, and they’ll come back and see how it’s going. That’s a little insane, right, because you’re just kind of. Tensioning bolts up to see if one of them has a problem and then you just do more of them and we’re wasting so much time because echo bolts figured this out years ago. You don’t need to do that. You can tell what the tension is in a bolt ultrasonically, which was the original technology, the first gen I’ll call it, uh, that you could tell the length of the bolt. If the length of the bolt is correct within certain parameters, you know that it is tension properly. If it’s shrunk, that probably means it’s not tensioned properly. That’s a huge advantage because you can’t physically see it. And I know I’ve seen technicians go, oh, I could take a hammer and I can tell you which ones are not tensioned properly wrong. Wrong. And I think that’s where equitable comes in because you’re actually applying a a lot of science simply [00:06:00] to a complex problem because the numbers are so big. Pete Andrews: Yeah, I mean that, that, that’s been the real. Driving force between our offering is to simplify it. So ultimately we’re based on a non-destructive testing technique. It’s an ultrasonic thickness checking technique, but when from the non-destructive testing background, it’s crack detection, people have time, they can be, it’s a very precision measurement. People have to be trained in the wind industry. We’re trying to inspect. A thousand, 2000 bolts a day at scale. It’s a completely different, um, ask of the technology and the way the technology has been developed historically has required too much technician expertise, too much configuration and set up time, and hasn’t delivered on the, on the speed that’s needed to be efficient in wind. And that’s where our bolt wave [00:07:00] unit we’ve, that we’ve developed over the last. 18 months, let’s say, where all of our focus has gone to make it as slick and as easy for a client technician to pick up with minimal training. It’s through an iOS interface. Everyone understands it intuitively. Um, it’s a bit like using the camera app on your phone. You know, you’re just hitting measure, measure, measure, measure, measure 10 seconds a bolt as you move the, um, ultrasonic transducer across, and then the data gets moved. Automatically to the cloud, to our bolt platform. And customers can view it in near real time. The engineer in the office can see the inspections happened. They can see if there are any anomalous bolts, and then there can be communication there and then whether an intervention is necessary. So it’s sort of really changed the way our customers think about managing their, um. They’re bolted joints.  Joel Saxum: Well, I think these are, these are the kind of innovations that we love to see, right? Because [00:08:00] we regularly talk about a shortage of technicians, and this isn’t, I was just learning this this week too, like this is not a wind problem. This is a everywhere problem. No matter what industry you’re in. Use are short of technicians. But we’re seeing like a tool like this is developed to be able to scale that workforce as well. Right. You don’t need to be an NDT level three expert to go and do these things. ’cause there’s a very few of those people out there. Right? Right. We know the NDT people, a lot of NDT people, and that’s a hard skillset to come by. Yeah. This can be put in the hands of any technician. Yeah, a quick training course. Just, Hey, this is how you use your iPhone. You can check Instagram, right? Yeah. Okay. You can off figure. Yeah, have fun. See you at lunch. Um, but they can, they can make this happen, right? They can go do these inspections and you’re getting that, that, uh, data collected in the field. Centralized back to an SME that’s looking at it and you don’t have to put that SME in the field and try to scale their ability to go and travel and do all these things. They can be in the office making sure that the, the QA, QC is done correctly. I love it. I think that that’s the way we need to go with a lot of things. [00:09:00]Uh, and you’re making it happen.  Pete Andrews: Yeah. And it’s a real kind of. F change in mindset for us. So originally when we started Ebot, we were using third party hardware. Yeah. Which required a bit of that specialism. Yeah. A bit of care about the setup of the project, getting multiple parameters configured before you got going. And it wasn’t really something we could put in the hands of a customer.  Joel Saxum: Yeah.  Pete Andrews: Which meant Ebot scale was limited to what our own team could go and do, and regionally as well. You know, so we’re UK based. Probably 60% of our customers are uk, but now we have this Northern Europe offshore wind is obviously on our doorstep, but then increasingly we’ve done more and more in North America, so we’ve probably been to five or six sites now in North America and expect that to be a growth market because we can, we can now ship the devices over there, give some virtual training help. Uh, [00:10:00] people set themselves up and then that opens up that market, you know, so it’s been a real change in strategy for us, but has allowed us to have far more impact than we otherwise would just try to be a pure service.  Allen Hall: Well, let’s talk about the big problem in the states of a minute, which are the root bushing or inserts that are loose in some blades. When you lose that pushing, you also lose the tension on the bolt that can be measured. Is that something you’re getting involved with quite a bit now because of just trying to determine how many bolts are affected and, and where we are on the safety scale of can we run this turbine or not? Is that something that EE bolt’s been looking into? Pete Andrews: Yeah, absolutely. So I, I’d say there’s sort of two halves of what we do. There’s the, there’s the bulk wholesale monitoring of. Typically static connections to eliminate this routine retitling where it’s not needed typically, typically. But then we have these edge cases of certain [00:11:00] connections and certain platforms that have known bolt integrity problems, and we are working with clients to really, um, manage those integrity risks. Blade stud is an absolute classic, you know, sort of, I think almost every turbine OEM on some, if not all of their platforms has got. Embedded risk into their blades, pitch bearing connections. Um, so yeah, exactly as you said, our customers are using the technology for two things really. One is to ensure the bolts have been tightened to the preload that was specified or the target window. And quite often we find there is an opportunity to increase the preload and therefore increase the resistance to fatigue failure. So. You know, particularly on older sites where the bolts perhaps not in the condition they were on day one. Well, they definitely won’t be. Um, when people have gone and retti them, they haven’t got back to where they, they should be.[00:12:00] So we can prove that and increase a bit of that resilience, but then also start to look for the segments around the joint where, um, the bolt might start loosening or failures are occurring, and find areas where they can really hone in. And actively manage risk. And that sort of leads to what we’ve decided to do for the next year, particularly with Blade Stud in mind, is evolve this technology. So whilst it’s also measuring the elongation, we will do a defect scan at the same time. So you’ll monitor your blade stu, um, connection and we’re hoping that we can set the device to flag to you there and then. We believe this bulk has got a defect while you’re here, get it changed out before it fails and, and all the knock on problems, um, from there. Joel Saxum: So what you’re just pointing to there is a, is a workflow, right? So to me that is typical [00:13:00] of some of the amazing, innovative companies in the UK that I’ve run into throughout my career. And that is, you’re a group of SMEs, you know, bolted connections. That’s what you do, right? But then you’re like, hey. If there’s a tool, we could make a tool that would make our lives a bit easier, then it’s like, well, we could make the entire industry’s lives a little bit easier as well. So let’s iterate on that. And now you’re able to send these kits around the world to look at these things. Hey, you have a problem with this specific model. We can help you with this because we know the failure mode and we know how to look for it. Let’s do that for you. Also here, you’re doing bolt bulk measurements. We got that for you. But it all kind of flows back to the fact that Echo Bolt is a team. A bolted connection, SMEs that are making tools and being able to also provide consulting if need be. Yeah. Right. Um, to, to an entire industry. And I think that, um, this is my take on it, right? Wind is stop number one. I think you guys are gonna do a fantastic year, but there’s a lot of, uh, opportunity out there in bolted [00:14:00] connections as well. Allen Hall: A tremendous amount blade bolts being broken from defects in the crystalline structure. What appears to be a more. Rapidly developing issue across fleets that I’ve seen. I went to a farm this summer and the number of blade bolts that were there on the table that were broken on the conference room table was And the whiteboard office. Yeah. Yeah. This one,  Joel Saxum: this one.  Allen Hall: Your hard head is not gonna protect you from this one. It’s, it’s, it was this, um, I couldn’t imagine the amount of time they were spending hunting these things down. And of course, the only way they were finding ’em was they were broken. You like to catch ’em before they break because it becomes  Joel Saxum: a safety risk. Just not too long ago we saw an insurance case where there’s an RCA going on and it is pointing at an entire tower came down. Right. And it is pointing at a mid, mid tower section bolted connection. How often do you guys run into those problems? Or are you contacted by insurance companies or anything like that to, to take a peek at those? Pete Andrews: We haven’t done anything directly for insurance [00:15:00]companies, but we have been engaged by. Engineering consultancies that are doing RCA type activities. Okay. Um, things like at the end of defect liability periods mm-hmm. A customer has, has seen, they’ve had a lot of, uh, issues from an OEM, maybe an OE EM has offered a modification or an upgrade, assessing whether that upgrade is actually solved the problem or not. We’ve got involved in, um, but the tower. Issue specifically. It’s actually very rare we find, um, problems with tower connections, but where we do is often where they haven’t achieved good flange flatness, ah, during installation or the bolts have been, let’s say, left out in the elements for a period and lubrication has been, has deteriorated before the bolt’s been installed. So there are cases out there, but what I would say is. [00:16:00] To think about your whole life cycle, so ensure the bolt’s installed correctly and we can help with that with a QA to say, yes, this torque or tightening method has got you to the load that you want. Do some through life monitoring, but often if you install it correctly, it will it’s operational life. You will have very little concern. But then in the UK market, we’re increasingly getting involved again at the end of life, right? Life extension where life extension turbines are 20, 25 years old. How does an operator make a decision to carry on running without replacing all bots? Um, and that’s where increasingly we being asked to use the technologist just to say, actually the joint is fine. The bolts have run in a good, um, operational envelope. Run them on. Don’t replace a hundred percent of them like you might have been recommended to from your, um, yeah. Turbine supplier side. [00:17:00] Allen Hall: So Pete, if someone’s doing a repower where they’re basically putting a new one in the cell on an existing tower, they’re making a lot of assumptions about all the bolts from the ground up that they’re gonna be okay. And I know we’re talking about that. We’re in a lot of installations where. If the turbine has gone through a repowered or two. So now those bolts are 20 years old. Yeah. And trying to get ’em to  Joel Saxum: 30 35. 35  Allen Hall: 40. Yeah. I don’t know what they’re doing. By those bolted connections. Are they just like replacing the bolts? Are they hitting ’em with a hammer again? Is that the, yeah,  Pete Andrews: I mean, they might replace ’em, but you’ve got a problem with the foundation bolts. ’cause they’re obviously often anchor bolts set into concrete, so you have to reuse them and. With the projects, both in wind and in process power industry with the chimney stacks to try and ascertain whether foundation bolts that are set into concrete are still suitable for operations. So look for corrosion losses, look for [00:18:00] defects. Um, so yeah, they’re all things that need thinking about before you just make the snap decision to repower. But I think  Joel Saxum: a lot of that, uh, going back to a couple minutes ago, you were talking about at the commissioning phase, making sure that you have proper qa, QC of how these things were installed day one, and then making sure that before commissioning of a turbine, they’re checked. I think that’s really important. We’re starting to see that in the blade world now too, where we’ve been talking about it for a long time, and now when you talk to operators, they’re like, we’re getting inspections done on the blades before they’re hung. Or at the factory before they’re hung. After they’re hung. Like they want a good foundation baseline. Are you seeing that in the bolted connection world too?  Pete Andrews: Yes. Sort of. It’s just emerging for us. What we’ve found is, so most of our customers are in the operational phase ’cause they are the ones feeling the pain. Yeah. Of the routine retitling work. When they do major components, they sometimes engage us to come and say, can you check [00:19:00] before and after the blade was removed? What was it? Before we took it off from a a bolt load perspective, what is it afterwards? Can you then recheck after 500 hours When we retalk it? And what we’ve seen there often is the initial install hasn’t got them to where they needed to be and they’ve had to go and do the break in maintenance or the 500 hour REIT to get the bolts to the right load. So one of the questions that we have is whether. Some of the defects are actually being initiated very early on in that initial running in period and whether if, if actually you’d taken the time at, at the point of assembly to make sure you were correct, whether that avoids some of the knock on integrity concerns. So yeah, it’s interesting area.  Allen Hall: Well, bolts are what hold wind turbines together and you better know you have the right. Tension and [00:20:00] torque on your bolts to get to the lifetime of the wind turbine and to, and to check it once in a while. And I know there’s a lot of operators I can think of right now in the United States that are sort of doing that job somewhat. I I think they have missed out on opportunities to save a lot of money and to call it echo bolt. How do people get ahold of you? Because that’s one thing I run into all the time. Like, Hey, hey, you gotta talk to Ebol, call Ebol. How do they get ahold of you?  Pete Andrews: So the easiest ways are via our website. Which is echo bolt.com. Um, LinkedIn, you’ll find us at Echo Bolt on LinkedIn. Reach out. Our email would be info@cobolt.com. So any of those route and you’ll, uh, reach me and the team and more than happy to speak to you about any of your faulting concerns or problems. We are, uh, yeah, we’re passionate about your problems.  Allen Hall: Pete, thank you so much for being on this podcast. I, it is great to actually see you in person and see the bolt wave technology. It’s really [00:21:00] impressive. So anybody out there that needs bolt tensioning to checking tools, you need to get ahold of Pete at Echo Bolt and get started today. Thank you Pete. Thanks guys. It’s great to be here.

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