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WATER SYSTEM HYGIENE & SAFETY


Guernsey hospitals praise monitoring system


Working with UK thermometer manufacturer, TM Electronics UK, hospital estate managers in the States of Guernsey are using ‘practical, low cost temperature strategies’ to speed up and simplify water temperature monitoring across their healthcare estate, as well as to ensure that their hospitals’ water systems comply with the demanding requirements of the Department of Health & Social Care’s HTM 04-01 and the HSE’s ACoP ‘L8’ guidance on the control of Legionella in water systems. TME Electronics UK MD, Tom Sensier reports, and also describes the features and benefits of some of the company’s key water monitoring systems and technologies a in healthcare setting.


Known more often for its beautiful scenery, old-world charm, and a slower pace of life, the island of Guernsey – home to a population of less than 65,000 people – is actually blazing something of a trail when it comes to hospital water safety. Working with us at TM Electronics UK, hospital estate managers in the States of Guernsey are taking innovative new measures to speed up and simplify water temperature monitoring across their healthcare estate. Healthcare services on the island are run on a different financial model than in the UK, but the practical challenges of water safety management in its hospitals and healthcare settings are very much the same, making the solutions identified directly relevant to NHS Trusts in the UK.


Looking at the what has happened ‘on the ground’ in a little more detail, Guernsey’s Princess Elizabeth Hospital has adopted an innovative and pragmatic strategy for Legionella risk management, using TME’s effective new method of monitoring water temperature in traditionally hard-to-access pipes and thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs). Guernsey’s only acute hospital, Princess Elizabeth is made up of 12 wards and various departments. including all of the island’s diagnostic facilities. The hospital is managed by the States of Guernsey Health, Social Care & Wellbeing Department, which provides integrated health and social care to Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark. Other hospital sites managed by the department are the Mignot Memorial Hospital in Alderney, and the Castel and King Edward VII Hospitals for Mental Health and Elderly Care services respectively.


Head of Estates, Clive Martin, said: “Our hospital safety laws in Guernsey are now pretty much the same as hospital legislation in the UK, which is pretty tough, and rightly so – but of course that has resulted in some difficult challenges. This is


Guernsey’s only acute hospital, the Princess Elizabeth Hospital, is made up of 12 wards and various departments. including all the island’s diagnostic facilities.


particularly the case when it comes to monitoring subordinate loops – one of the most well-known challenges in the field of water safety management. We have over 800 subordinate loops alone, many located behind closed panelling, which can be quite a headache.”


A highly labour-intensive task Having spoken at length with estates managers from hospitals all over the UK with similar problems, TME understood the challenge; the practical difficulties involved in monitoring temperatures of hard-to-reach water outlets, combined with the sheer volume of tests required by legislation, make the task prohibitively labour-intensive for many hospital Trusts. This understanding explains our development of the TC Wall Port System – a practical, easy-to-use method of remote temperature sensing which produces fewer false negative results, is


cheap to install, and, crucially, once in place, significantly reduces the cost of ongoing temperature tests by removing the need to take down panelling or to work at height.


How does the system work? TC Wall Ports are miniature, wall-mounted thermocouple sockets which speed up and simplify temperature testing of hard- to-reach locations like concealed pipework, including TMVs, subordinate loops, and high-level water storage tanks. Each port measures just 52 x 52 mm, and houses either a single or double thermocouple connector, linked to any given water outlet using a length of fine wire with a fixed surface, air, or immersion sensor. Temperatures are taken by simply plugging a hand-held thermometer into the port, delivering instant results with no loss of accuracy from up to 20 metres away.


October 2019 Health Estate Journal 47


©The States of Guernsey


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