Hardware design/installation
Minimum disruption, maximum satisfaction
Philip Ross, commercial director at door, door hardware, and door safety specialist, Safehinge, explains – including via a look at a recent installation for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust – how the company ensures that installations at client sites progress with the minimum disruption, thanks to ‘a meticulous and methodical design, testing, prototyping, and planning process’, and close working partnerships with service-users and staff.
A market-leader in door safety, at Safehinge we created our first hinge guard product in 2005 in response to reports that 30,000 children were being injured every year when their fingers became trapped in doors. This cost the NHS an estimated £200 million. This single product, which helped to revolutionise safety in schools, retail outlets, leisure facilities, and healthcare facilities, kicked off a trend that has since seen us solve many other key issues facing modern door design, particularly within specialist settings such as mental healthcare facilities. Central to our ethos as a company is a
thorough design process and easy on-site installation – the springboard for all of our work. It is by harnessing this methodical design, testing, prototyping, and planning process that we, as a manufacturer, can minimise the disruption during installations in live environments – making life easier and safer for service-users, staff, and installation teams. After all, in mental healthcare settings, time is crucial, so our products need to be easy to fit and to operate.
Jeremy Young. He explains: “The relationship we have with our clients and installers is absolutely vital to us. One of the primary tasks carried out during the development phase is making sure that as much as possible can be pre-fitted offsite – all the ironmongery such as handles and vision panels. Avoiding having to carry out this work on site helps with fire compliance, as you are not making changes to the doors in situ, and it makes the doors harder to tamper with. It also makes it much quicker to install them on site. Installers can just get on with the job without having to worry about anything else.”
One such development is our SWIFTfit rapid installation metal door frame, which can be installed in just two hours. It is this speedy installation that we believe sets us apart from many other manufacturers.
Safehinge’s timber finish door hinge and timber vision panel beads emulate the familiar home environment.
SERVICE-USER INVOLVEMENT When we start designing a product, we don’t just involve the Trust or facility’s estates department, but also clinical staff, and, where possible, service-users – the people who will be using our products. It’s about how we can work with them to create something that blends in, but also addresses the issues they have. Overseeing much of this work is our dedicated team of product designers, which includes
A ‘NON-INSTITUTIONAL, HOTEL-LIKE’ FEEL Another thing that we do differently – in direct response to customer requests – is to create safe and robust doors that look more like doors from a hotel environment than a prison. We have a range of options in terms of timber choices and colour selection – allowing us to design the door to suit each project. We have worked on ultra- modern spaces where dark walnut doors were used to create a panel effect door that even had to satisfy strict planning consent from heritage officers for a Grade 2-listed building. The flexibility provided by our Symphony doorset range, alongside our design skills, allows us to create beautiful-looking doors to create a more homely environment – aiding recovery.
An excellent example of the success of this
A recent commission for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust saw 40 doorsets replaced in a single upgrade programme at the Broadoak Unit in Broadgreen, Liverpool.
24 THE NETWORK OCTOBER 2016
approach was a recent commission at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, where 40 doorsets were replaced in a single upgrade programme at the Broadoak Unit in Broadgreen, Liverpool, which accommodates service-users with mental health needs, learning disabilities, and problems with substance abuse. This is a great example of how working so closely with a customer and installers can help to ensure the best result. The Trust was looking at its existing leaf-and- a-half door arrangement for bedrooms, with a view to improving the anti-barricade access and robustness. Leaf-and-a-half doors are not ideal, because fitting them with anti-barricade access creates a very-bulky meeting stile on the two door leaves. Moreover, these doors can look very institutional, with additional exposed metalwork, and the simple fact you would never expect to see a door like this in your own home.
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