Waste disposal/Infection control
Traditional skills, modern technologies
With infection control a key priority in hospitals, care homes, and other healthcare facilities, nursing and other staff need human waste disposal systems that are efficient, fast, safe, and reliable, but which also minimise infection transmission risk. Healthcare estates teams responsible for maintaining such equipment, meanwhile, need machines that will not break down, offer low water and energy consumption, and a design that ensures drains and other water infrastructure do not get blocked by waste or disposable bedpans. Haigh Engineering Company in Ross-on-Wye says its machines offer all these features, backed by outstanding levels of support and service, and a British engineering pedigree dating back over half a century. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, visited the company to find out more.
H
aigh, which says disposable bedpan macerator use has ‘increased notably’ in recent years – to the extent that over 85% of UK hospitals now favour such machines for bedpan handling is, I discovered during an interesting visit to the company’s Herefordshire headquarters – characterised by a mix of traditional British engineering expertise, and up-to-the minute technology. Couple these traits with a determination to offer the market’s most reliable, efficient, and energy and water- saving macerators, backed by a rapid and responsive breakdown service, and the company certainly appears to have a winning formula. All the management, production, and sales personnel I met at Haigh were proud both of the high levels of service the company provides, and the constant focus on innovation, while simultaneously mindful of the company’s engineering roots and values. Today Haigh has two divisions – Haigh Healthcare sells waterborne waste processors – or macerators – that use water alone, rather than the mix of chemicals used in bedpan washers – to pulp single-use bedpans used in healthcare facilities, with the residue safely flushed to the drains. Having established itself in the
All aspects of design, manufacturing, sales, installation, and co-ordination of maintenance are
centred at Ross-on-Wye 70 Health Estate Journal
September 2016
Haigh’s goal is ‘to focus on first-class engineering, combined with outstanding reliability’. Here production engineer, Kevin Nicholson Jones, gives a final safety check to a Quattro macerator as part of the inspection process before packing.
1960s with the Sluicemaster and Classic models, the company subsequently introduced the SOLO macerator, and, most recently, the Quattro, which are all sold into hospitals and care homes, together with the Sanimatic commercial foodwaste disposal units for canteens and kitchens. The Haigh Wastewater division, meanwhile, supplies equipment to the sewage treatment industry.
A true all-rounder All aspects of design, manufacturing, sales, installation, and co-ordination of maintenance are centred at Ross-on-Wye, while the factory – extended and upgraded over the years, undertakes a broad spectrum of manufacturing utilising ‘state- of-the-art’ CNC machine tools which carry out processes including mill turning, and multi-axis robotic laser and MIG (metal inert gas) welding. The company employs
some 95 staff, and is still family-owned. While some hospitals and other healthcare facilities – and this trend appears more prevalent in mainland Europe than the UK – still use plastic or stainless steel reusable bedpans cleaned after each use in special washers, Haigh claims that not only is the washing process time-consuming and labour- intensive, but also that there is a risk that some bedpans may not be sufficiently bacteria-free even after high temperature washing, posing a potential cross-infection risk when next used. Among the benefits Haigh cites for its bedpan macerators, used in conjunction with disposable pulp bedpans, are: A new disposable bedpan or bottle each time.
Reduced cross-infection risk. Bacteria is not presented to the patient via the bedpan.
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