WATER HYGIENE AND SAFETY


Meeting the pure water challenges of healthcare


Given the challenges of the past two years, it is essential that hospitals and other healthcare facilities continue to maintain a robust strategy to ensure patient safety. Here, Tony Stubbs, Business Development manager (Healthcare) at Veolia Water Technologies UK (VWT UK), explains why a consistent, pure water supply, and smart monitoring solutions, should be an integral part of that strategy.


Equipment failure or system shutdowns can cause significant issues for healthcare facilities, such as departmental closures and appointment cancellations. As the UK continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are faced with another problem: tackling long waiting lists due to the significant number of appointments that were suspended. Looking back at some telling statistics for last year, and according to NHS England, 6.35 million patients were waiting to start treatment in March 2022 – an all-time high since records began. In addition, 2.31 million patients had been waiting over 18 weeks for treatment in February 2022, while almost 300,000 had been waiting for over a year. Although it will undoubtedly take years to clear this backlog, this winter is expected to be hard on the NHS once again; thus any further delays caused by equipment or system failures could be devastating for many of the UK’s hospitals and the health of their patients.


Importance of a pure supply A consistent supply of pure water is a necessity for many areas within a healthcare facility. For example, there has been a severe backlog in endoscopy appointments as a result of the pandemic. With many of those waiting for appointments being cancer


patients, it is essential to prevent any unforeseen downtime in the water supply to the washers, as this will lead to yet more delays. The same can be said for decontamination and sterile services, laboratories, and renal departments. They also require pure water. Renal dialysis is a critical and life-saving procedure, which is required by patients at regular intervals each week. It is therefore vital that there is a reliable supply of pure water to the renal dialysis equipment. Any pure water supplied must comply


with relevant ISO standards – ISO 23500 for renal procedures, and ISO 15833 for decontamination services. Healthcare facilities must also adhere to the relevant Health Technical Memoranda, which give comprehensive guidance to ensure that the very best levels of healthcare are delivered to patients.


Need for robustness With close monitoring of these parameters being critical, pure water technologies and monitoring equipment must be robust. With this in mind, healthcare facilities can take advantage of smart solutions that allow site operators to monitor the production of pure water, and implement operational strategies in line with day-to- day concerns. Often, these flexible digital monitoring systems are scalable, and


can be implemented on a range of water technologies, from a single dialysis unit, to a complete pure water system network. Smart solutions can enable operators to


address specific water optimisation needs and respond to challenges throughout the water cycle. With 24/7 access to secure web portals, and customisable interfaces to suit all users, an uninterrupted supply of pure water can be guaranteed. These solutions also allow operators to manage and optimise the supply, in turn reducing production costs while maintaining the highest quality of water required.


Making more accurate decisions In addition to this, healthcare facilities can make more accurate decisions about their water treatment equipment. Users can access a digital library of relevant documents, including service reports, contracts, and orders, while data visualisation is used to collect and display process data from equipment. In addition, operators can also receive notifications and alarms in the event of faults, which enables proactive intervention and avoids unexpected shutdowns. Furthermore, automatic reporting can provide healthcare facilities with consistent and regular data analysis, as well as maintenance modules that give an overview of the tasks requiring attention,


A consistent supply of pure water is a necessity for many areas within a healthcare facility.


Ongoing winters are expected to be hard on the NHS. April 2023 Health Estate Journal 69


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