WATER HYGIENE & SAFETY
Collaboration enhances system management
Daniel Pitcher, managing director at the Water Hygiene Centre, describes how the Wye Valley NHS Trust and its PFI partner, Sodexo, worked together to significantly improve the safe and efficient management of the water system at Hereford County Hospital, enhancing existing monitoring and review systems, and making key data available to those who require it – such as Water Safety Group members – in a more accessible format. The starting point saw new Terms of Reference and a new agenda developed for the WSG, while later both organisations’ Water Safety Plans were reviewed and updated to afford consistency.
The delivery of a robust and functioning Water Safety Plan for any NHS Trust/ Board remains a key issue in the 21st century. The extent of resources being invested into water safety for an organisation will often depend on the size and age of the estate, and the physical condition of its water systems. Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) has, for several years, been actively managing water safety across what is a varied estate – which includes a PFI hospital, a combination of retained estate buildings on the same site, and many community sites (including three community hospitals, surgeries, and clinics). Co-ordinating the various involved parties and their approach and efforts to bring about consistent and proactive water management required a clear vision and direction for all to agree and then take forward.
England’s first integrated provider Wye Valley NHS Trust was established on 1 April 2011. The Trust was England’s first integrated provider of acute, community, and adult social care services, bringing together Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust, NHS Herefordshire’s Provider Services (excluding Mental Health), and Herefordshire Council’s Adult Social Care services. The Trust’s main hospital site is Hereford County Hospital in Hereford, one of the smallest rural district general hospitals in England. The Trust serves a population of 180,000, and has a workforce of around 3,000 providing a range of specialist and generalist functions. Sodexo is the Trust’s long-term strategic partner for designing, managing, and delivering a range of services to provide excellent patient care. Sodexo has been running services at the Hereford County Hospital since 1999, and employs 340 staff on site. The established Water Safety Group Water meets quarterly, and includes representatives from the Trust, Sodexo, and the Trust’s independent Authorising Engineer (Water) AE(W). The Water
26 Health Estate Journal April 2020
Water Safety Plans have become an increasingly important tool in the armoury of healthcare facilities looking to maintain their water system in the most hygienic, safe, bacteria-free, and compliant, condition.
Hygiene Centre provides Authorising Engineer services to both the Wye Valley NHS Trust and Sodexo. Since it was established, the WSG has always sought assurance from all parties that water systems were compliant, albeit that ‘this was not always clearly or consistently presented’.
The revision of Health Technical Memorandum 04-01 in 2016 provided a clear remit for Water Safety Groups to follow. The AE (W) subsequently prepared
a new ‘Terms of Reference’ for the WSG, which aligned to the HTM04-01 remit, and which was further supported by the preparation of an agenda for the WSG to follow. The agenda headings were designed to ensure that the ToR were being delivered. The revision of the ToR allowed the WSG to take a ‘step back’, and refocus on what the core function of the group was, and how best to achieve it”, explained Christian Homersley, head of Facilities and Capital Planning.
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