FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
Electrolux Professional’s Line 6000 washers include Power Balance technology, which guarantees low water retention throughout the drying process by determining the optimal extraction speed.
recovery of its core services and, perhaps most importantly, produce flexible solutions to meet the future needs of patients and staff, while ensuring the most efficient and productive use of its resources. This presents decision makers with an ideal opportunity to switch to predictive maintenance by adopting connected laundry systems. For NHS workers, this would promise a more stable and supportive working environment, where clean linen is consistently available, equipment failures are minimised, and time-consuming
The predictive shift Laundry maintenance in healthcare estates has traditionally followed a reactive model, where machines are only serviced when something goes wrong. While this may seem cost-effective in the short term, insufficient investment in proactive upgrades has led to record levels of backlog maintenance across the NHS – now estimated to be over £10 bn. Alongside skyrocketing long-term repair costs, reactive maintenance often leads to unplanned downtime and consequently a disrupted linen supply, placing additional strain on already stretched teams.
Above all, reactive maintenance lacks visibility.
Mick Christian
Mick Christian is Electrolux Professional’s Training and Development manager for the UK & Ireland, and has over 36 years’ experience in the industry.
His main
responsibilities include conducting product demonstrations and training, both in Electrolux Professional’s Centre of Excellence in Luton and on site with customers, to help laundry managers across the country get the most from their equipment.
Without access to real-time data, operators are left unaware of underlying issues until they escalate. This can result in rushed repairs, expensive emergency callouts and increased wear on equipment due to inconsistent servicing. As machines in healthcare applications continuously handle high volumes of linen, this model is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Circling back to the challenges mentioned right at
the beginning, the need to shift towards predictive maintenance is being driven by several pressures. For example, rising operational costs, from energy and water to labour and chemicals, are forcing estates to make crucial gains wherever possible. The COVID-19 pandemic also reinforced the importance of robust infection control, making reliable laundry operations non-negotiable when it comes to patient safety. With more estates undergoing modernisation, digitalisation will likely be at the heart of these strategies. Here, predictive maintenance driven by connected laundry systems will be crucial. As part of the Government’s 10 year infrastructure
strategy, launched earlier this year, integrated care boards (ICBs) have been encouraged to make the case for long-term investment in the NHS estate. This will help to address necessary backlog maintenance, support the
On premises laundry is a crucial cog in a healthcare site’s facilities management strategy.
52 Health Estate Journal January 2026
manual checks are replaced with automated insights. In short, this means fewer disruptions to daily routines, improved infection control and a greater ability to focus on patient care rather than logistical challenges. Energy prices may no longer sit at the unprecedented
highs seen over recent years, but it’s understandable why some decision makers may be tempted to settle for more affordable laundry equipment to limit short-term expenditure. Yet, with healthcare estates in urgent need of maintenance and modernisation, arguably the more pragmatic approach is to explore connected laundry solutions that can also reduce water and energy bills and provide protection against any future uncertainty around utility costs. After all, it’s important to remember that the initial
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