Maintaining hand hygiene without mains supply

Clean, hot water is vital to helping combat infections in hospitals, but when the water supply itself is at risk, what are the options? Here Manty Stanley, managing director of Teal Patents, which specialises in providing hot water handwashing facilities without mains water supply or drainage, explains how to maintain high hand hygiene standards when the water supply is compromised, and what contingency solutions are available to ensure that staff, patient, and visitor welfare can be maintained without resorting to ward closures.

The NHS needs to plan for, and respond to, a wide range of incidents and emergencies that could affect health or patient care. These could be anything from extreme weather conditions to an outbreak of an infectious disease or a major transport accident. The Civil Contingencies Act (2004)1 requires NHS organisations, and providers of NHSfunded care, to show that they can deal with such incidents while maintaining services. This programme of work is referred to in the health community as emergency preparedness, resilience and response, or ‘EPRR’. 

We work with hospitals on ensuring that contingency emergency hot water supplies are available when needed. Ideally, forward planning an approach that is fully integrated into the organisation’s emergency planning will ensure timely delivery of critical supplies. This ensures that if the emergency only affects the mains water supply, the hospital can stay open, and the impact on patient care is minimal. We also offer an on-demand service to deliver supplies within 24 hours.