HOT AND COLD WATER DRINKING SYSTEMS
Hot and cold drinks ‘on tap’ for service-users
Nathan Murphy, National Project manager at Hotspot Titanium, a specialist in water appliances, discusses the development and launch into the mental healthcare sector of the company’s drinking tap range, designed to give staff and service-users safe, rapid access to hot and cold filtered water, enabling them to prepare their own drinks, and helping make for a less ‘institutional’ environment and a feeling of greater independence, as well as ensuring that they stay hydrated.
Hotspot Titanium as an independent company was born out of a Dutch innovation hub – Inventum, founded in 1908 by Alexander Vosmaer. Inventum – which today has its headquarters and main production facility in Utrecht – used the specifics of electric energy to create a range of innovative ventilation and boiling water appliances. The company’s promise – ‘Energy Innovation First: safe and trusted’ – has remained for over 100 years – a promise that started with innovation and the enthusiasm of people to do things differently and better, and has evolved into producing new products and creating new brands, such as Hotspot Titanium. Thanks to Inventum’s rich history, innovation, and expertise in delivering sustainable, energy- saving hot water and ventilation solutions, Hotspot Titanium was spun off in 2016 as a sustainable and lean manufacturing company that guarantees quality from start to finish with its filtered boiling and chilled water solutions. At Hotspot Titanium, we believe the
hydration station is a central point in communal spaces, such as the shared spaces within mental healthcare facilities. These – as in other similar spaces – tend to be a place where people eat and drink together, and communicate and connect with each other.
A range of styles and finishes Our taps are available in a range of styles and finishes to suit different environments. We know from experience that our customers – and NHS and private sector mental healthcare providers are no exception – want a filtered boiling or chilled water solution that stands the test of time, is robust, well-engineered, has excellent aesthetics, and isn’t impactful on the environment. Our filtered water taps switch easily between cold, hot, boiling, and chilled water, and can be installed in a broad range of environments. If a hot water dispense is required, they are used in combination with our 4 or 8 litre titanium water boilers. We chose titanium because it is durable, extremely corrosion- resistant, and allows no calcium limescale build-up. Equally, titanium never passes its ions into the drinking water, making it 100% non-allergic, and guaranteeing a pure taste.
Approach from a leading mental healthcare provider In 2020 we were approached by one of the UK’s leading private mental healthcare providers, Cygnet Health Care, with a request that nobody appeared to have a solution to – a tap that would provide filtered drinking water, while saving energy,
and reducing risk to users in challenging environments. We know the importance of keeping
service-users in mental healthcare settings well-hydrated, and felt that a hot and cold water dispensing tap that could be safely installed into service-user areas would also give them some welcome independence, and help make the environment less clinical, and more like ‘home’, as well as freeing up staff time. With our knowledge and expertise, we were confident we could develop a suitable solution, and we subsequently designed, and now manufacture, what we believe is the world’s first hot and cold WRAS-approved tap with a lifetime warranty designed specifically for use in mental health settings. We thought the system we had developed was great, but would it work? After numerous user engagement sessions, and testing at trial sites, we had received so much positive feedback that we were overwhelmed with enquiries.
A greater sense of independence We discovered from staff and service- users, and the trials, that service-users did indeed feel more independent being able to safely make their own drinks. They also suggested that we incorporate our now instantly recognisable coloured Halos to identify the hot and cold taps for more visual distinction. We tested taps with and without buttons, and discovered that service-users really like a physical interaction with the tap, while the non- button version tended to confuse, and wasn’t felt to offer such a positive user experience. After a 12-week trial, we gathered
Hotspot Titanium says that Qura is ‘now increasingly the standard choice for Estates and Facilities managers in mental healthcare’.
THE NETWORK | MAY 2023
the resulting data and feedback and developed the Qura tap you see today. We are extremely proud that it is the first such product designed specifically for mental healthcare use in conjunction with service- users and staff. It has gone on to be the standard specification both for a number of NHS Trusts, and private healthcare providers, including for some large new hospital projects. The Qura is also the only specialised mental health tap with WRAS
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