Reducing risk with better tap design

Manufacturers have also striven to ensure their latest thermostatic tap and valve technologies minimise any risk of scalding from excessively hot water during washing, showering or bathing in healthcare environments. Health Estate Journal reports.

  The issue of the danger of burns, particularly to elderly patients or children in hospitals, from touching or holding onto the body of taps incorporating thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs) first surfaced in earnest in early 2007, when a Welsh Health Estates (WHE) validation team visiting a new Clinical Decision Unit at a district general hospital in Wales was informed by the Trust’s site engineer that the surfaces of a number of such devices were becoming very hot during use. The taps were subsequently measured to establish the temperatures on their metal bodies, which were found to be reaching 55-60°C while in use. The team was led by WHE principal engineer Paul Wilkings, who immediately reported his concerns back to estates personnel at the WHE’s Cardiff headquarters and, through a knowledge network group, to the Department of Health’s (DH) Estates Division. He explains the background: “TMV3- accredited mixer taps are widely used today in hospitals to mix the cold and hot water supplying washbasins, showers and baths. To reduce the risk of Legionella (as the bacterium is effectively killed off above this temperature) the hot water is supplied to the TMV3 tap at a Department of Health-stipulated 55-60°C minimum temperature, and the cold below 20°C, to prevent the bacteria’s build-up, only actually being mixed together to a safe temperature for patient use very near to, or within, the tap body.

TMV3 scheme introduced