PRODUCT PERFORMANCE TESTING
Choices testing and guidance will be further refined over time, in current form the testing covers the performance of products: l for their ability to reduce ligature risk, l and to withstand sustained attack and abuse.
It also covers some specific characteristics of doors and windows, and their furniture and hardware, such as anti-barricade for doors, and cleanability of mesh for windows.
Product categories The Testing Guide is applicable to the following products used within ‘primarily high-risk’ areas such as bedrooms, bathrooms, toilets, and other spaces, and ‘areas infrequently observed and where 90% of suicides occur’ (see Safety Alert EFA/2018/015): l doorsets and windows, and their associated hardware;
l furniture; l sanitary fittings; l fixtures and fittings; l and safety devices. The DiMHN and BRE explain that the Testing Guide only specifies test methods for the following parameters: l sensitivity of products to be used as ligature anchor points;
l robustness of products from strength, operational durability, and failure mode assessments;
l certain additional parameters specific to doorsets, hardware, and windows – including noise, cleanability, light attenuation, airflow and ventilation, daylight transmission, and safety devices.
The Testing Guide aims to: l ensure that patient safety is not compromised by inappropriate selection of products for current and future use;
l communicate product testing requirements to manufacturers to enable them to supply a product that is appropriate for the environment in which it is to be used, and
l help procurement teams better evaluate manufacturers’ trade literature.
Specially tailored methodologies The DiMHN and BRE explain: “The Testing Guide provides testing methodologies for materials, fixtures, and hardware specifically designed for use within mental healthcare facilities to reduce the risk of
I think the scheme is going to be a real game-changer in ensuring the supply of well-designed, fit-for-purpose products to a range of mental healthcare settings National Sales manager, Polar NE, Nick Sutton
harm to inpatients. It brings the many disparate requirements for such products into one document to enable suitably qualified experts to choose the most appropriate one for the patients under their care, considering the specific care pathway’s needs.” The scheme’s main objectives are:
l ‘to discourage the proliferation of individual and repetitive product testing methods by NHS Trusts and authorities, so that designers, contractors, manufacturers, operators, and estates/ maintenance staff, can benefit from one national test methodology’;
l ‘to set the minimum acceptable standards that can be used with confidence, knowing that the products will be within stringent NHS cost limits, as well as meeting the special requirements imposed on mental health facilities’;
l ‘to provide test methods and performance categorisation criteria for products that can easily be used or referred to in contract documentation for contractors, specifiers, procurement teams, and manufacturers’;
l ‘to improve efficiency and reduce design costs’;
l ‘to harness specialist knowledge’; l ‘to enable periodical updating as standards and clinical requirements change’;
l ‘to form the basic test methodology for quality assurance systems and a certification scheme’, and
l ‘to provide NHS Trust Boards with the confidence that the testing defined negates the need for them to do their own product testing’.
The DiMHN and BRE added: “The document has been written in such a way as to support an approvals/certification process. It does not, however, set pass / fail criteria, but defines test procedures and requirements that should result in demonstrating a range of performance characteristics that will enable an informed
When we first heard that the DiMHN was working with the BRE to develop a more comprehensive standard, we were keen to be involved
Communications and Engagement co-ordinator, Polar NE, Kurtis Mulholland
THE NETWORK | MAY 2023
choice for those procuring the products. It is primarily aimed at manufacturers and test laboratories, and will enable product manufacturers to demonstrate their products’ performance based on standardised rules and requirements. It is hoped, however, that the document is used by the wider industry, and in many places it refers to the overall building/facility design, and the need to incorporate the outcomes of testing into the risk assessment process of users and specifiers.”
Architectural glazing specialist’s journey
One of the suppliers to the mental healthcare sector which has had a long involvement in the scheme’s development and associated guidance, and which, in January this year, was among the first such companies to take one of its products to the BRE to find out more about what the testing involves, is Middlesbrough-based Polar NE. Founded in 1983, the architectural glazing specialist manufactures a range of specialist windows and doors for mental healthcare use, having entered the sector in 2012. One of its most popular products for low to medium secure applications has been its Humber Secure window, originally developed on a project for Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust. Two years ago it launched a newly developed version, Humber Two, with smaller sightlines, allowing for increased light transmittance and increased airflow, but retaining all the main features of the original Humber Secure, ‘while further increasing levels of safety and security’.
The Humber Two The aluminium profiled Humber Two has an external sliding sash operated by a reduced ligature rotating handle, with access to the external sash restricted by an internal stainless steel removable PolarMesh. The PolarMesh is removable only by Maintenance Departments, to allow cleaning of the internal face of the sliding sash, deep cleaning of the PolarMesh, or to replace the PolarMesh. The external sash can be locked in three positions (Fully Open, Midpoint, or Fully Closed) to allow staff control over the levels of natural airflow and temperature of the room. To aid safety and security, there are no glazing beads. Kurtis Mulholland, Polar NE’s
Communications and Engagement co- ordinator, explained to me when I spoke to him and his colleague, National Sales
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