Tap upgrade wins praise all round

As Horne’s marketing manager, Hannah Berry, explains, one of the many benefits is that the Board’s Estates Department no longer needs a large “arsenal” of spare parts in stock for different fittings.

 NHS Lanarkshire, in Scotland’s central belt, started a programme of rolling refurbishment in August 2010 to replace all clinical handwashing facilities across its estate. The standardised module that it is now using comprises a clinical basin, the Optitherm thermostatic tap from Horne Engineering, and soap and towel dispensers, all mounted on a single integrated panel structure. Prior to this, handwashing facilities within the Board’s hospitals and other healthcare facilities were in dire need of an upgrade, and had been commented upon in a recent Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) report for Monklands Hospital in Airdrie. An allocation of new funding allowed the problems with the existing estate to be addressed. The Optitherm tap, which comprises a thermostatic mixing valve (TMV), warm water tap, and a dedicated cold water tap combined into a single unit that offers significant benefits relating to installation, operation, and maintenance, was first trialled out at Monklands Hospital, a large district general hospital offering acute services and a 24-hour accident and emergency department which has 535 inpatient beds. Over the course of several months, I spoke with Billy Lindsay, Monklands Hospital’s maintenance manager, and Linda Thomas, infection control nurse, about their decision to standardise on the Optitherm tap at Monklands, and then propose its installation across the entire Trust estate.

The initial problem