HEALTHCARE WATER SYSTEMS
Above: Risk levels shown on the Angel Guard Seraph Protect portal with ‘Red’, ‘Amber’, and ‘Green’ (RAG) symbols. Seraph Protect is ‘a cloud-based water management system designed to keep water systems safe and compliant’. Right: The Clarence remote water monitoring system from Angel Guard is designed ‘to provide real-time insights into water quality’.
Jonathan Waggott
During a 38-year career, Jonathan Waggott FRSPH, MWMSoc, has developed many innovative products. He studied design and engineering, and is an affiliate member of the RIBA, an Associate Member of The Healthcare Infection Society, and a Council member and Sub- Committee member of the Water Management Society. He has travelled worldwide visiting many hospitals and other buildings to better understand how water systems can be improved and made safer for occupants. In 2017 he was made
a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, and has been given the Freedom of the City of London for services to plumbing and public health. He is founder and CEO of Angel Guard and Water Kinetics; both are focused on the safe delivery of water and reducing HCAIs. In 2021 he won Disruptor of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
The Angel Guard C-1 outdoor device, however, does work very effectively with cooling towers, and has been tried and tested for a number of years. Built to work as well outside as it does inside, these devices can withstand temperatures at near freezing point. To help ensure safety and compliance, they monitor circulation temperatures every second to ensure that they are within the limits set out in the scheme of control. In addition, the system helps ensure that water recirculation is kept flowing – alerting responsible persons the second it stops. The C-1 also includes the world’s first low-cost, in-line biofilm sensor, which can detect biofilm-generating pathogens at levels as low as 6 cfu per 100 ml of water. This critical data is then transmitted to Angel Guard’s cloud portal, where its advanced and patented risk assessment software analyses the information and assigns a risk level. This allows sites to stay informed, be proactive, and greatly increase safety and compliance levels.
Should I fit devices on every outlet in my building? While fitting sensors to monitor every outlet in a building would be the optimal solution, giving Estates teams a full and complete picture, it is also not always practical to do so, and is certainly not what the current guidance suggests. Instead, a good place to start would be to fit devices to all current sentinel outlets – including the ones not just furthest away from the heat/cooling sources, but also ones in high-risk areas such as neonates, oncology wards, theatres, and burns units etc, and those that have had a recent positive test result for waterborne pathogens. In addition, the recent HTM 04-01 addendum proposes that all outlets in rooms where patients are at a higher risk of becoming infected with NTMs should be monitored using suitable digital water monitoring technology. Until recently, digital monitoring was considered a
helpful add-on – now, it’s being recognised as a valid, and in many cases preferred, route to compliance. Updated guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and NHS’s Health Technical Memorandum 04-01 (HTM 04-01) now acknowledges digital methods as effective alternatives to traditional manual checks. This is a significant development for Estates managers under pressure to demonstrate compliance, while balancing workload and cost management. In short: digital water
64 Health Estate Journal September 2025
monitoring is no longer just a smart upgrade – it’s an accepted standard. Firstly, it’s important to understand that, like many things in life, not all digital monitoring systems are created equal. When investing in a DWM solution, Estates teams should ask the following questions: n Is the system fully compliant with the latest regulations? n Does it take readings frequently enough to be accurate? n How does the system handle the large amounts of data?
n Is the system scalable across multiple buildings or campuses?
n Does it offer clear, cloud-based reporting and alerting tools?
n Can it integrate with existing infrastructure or BMS equipment?
n Is there a risk of alert fatigue, or is it intelligently configured?
n Does the provider offer training and technical support?
Fortunately, the recent guidance issued by the HSE and the Water Management Society covers all of this, and provides potential buyers of this technology with a clear checklist of what to look out for, and ensure is included within any DWM system being considered. The guidance states that the following features should be present: n RAG (Red, Amber, Green) alerts (dependent on risk levels), with the alerts automatically sent to appropriate people, with response times pre-set.
n Alerts identify the cause of the issue, and suggest the remedial action to be taken.
n All alerts can be escalated. n Completed alerts must state when and by whom they were actioned.
n Alert thresholds must mirror the individual building scheme of control for each outlet/area of the water supply, and be different for every building.
n Alert thresholds must be different for various areas within the water system, such as tanks, calorifiers, and plate heat exchangers etc., and again should mirror what is in the scheme of control.
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