Looking Deeper - 15th Edition

Looking deeper | The Journal of the Water Safety Forum

Can we fix the future in time?

Looking Deeper Editor, Susan Pearson

On paper, the approach of the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) for England looks like a breath of fresh air — a real chance to provide efficient modern hospitals that have, as far as possible, had real thought applied to their planning. The outline ambition so far is to plan blueprints that deliver construction models designed to bypass the causes of the potentially dangerous problems, in some cases leading to fatalities, that have beset several recently constructed flagship hospitals (see pp 5-6). But how will this crucial design stage work in practice? The details are currently hazy, yet the NHP’s ambition to deliver new healthcare infrastructure using modern modular construction models by 2030 will need to knuckle down fast if this target is to be achieved. The healthcare built environment has been a significant and largely underestimated source of infection to patients. The types of issues that must be addressed will be familiar to IPC teams and everyone working in the healthcare water safety industry.

of escalating antimicrobial resistance? And the list goes on. On pages 6-9, we take a closer look at some further considerations around hospital design. For example, the patient user experience in new healthcare facilities would be boosted by dedicated green spaces — but why could that be problematic? And how might any problems be addressed? Planning for new hospitals will also need to take into account how plumbing qualifications feed into best healthcare construction practices (pp 10-11). In order to achieve the outcome put forward in the NHSE and DHSC’s ambition for “40 new healthcare facilities” there must be close engagement with NHSE’s team of experts and a clear pathway outlined for the input of their recommendations to inform the new buildings’ design. At the end of the day, we must never forget that there is only one reason for building a new hospital: to make healthcare safer for patients.

For example: close attention must be paid to provide plumbing layouts that won’t be vulnerable to water stagnation that leads to microbial proliferation; or to the need for subsequent alterations that create dead legs, and again lead to biofilm growth; the numbers of water outlets needed in different areas of usage will need to be considered; as will the types (and therefore design) of the water outlets themselves, again in relation to usage and local water conditions.

“The patient has to be at the centre of the project from the beginning.”

George McCracken, Director of Estates of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Looking Deeper, Autumn 2021

What strategy will there be to take into account the effect of wastewater when even the most sophisticated healthcare systems around the world are increasingly recognised as a source for dispersal

Contents

02 Editorial 03 Editorial Contributions 04 In the news

05/06 New Hospitals Programme 06/09 Hospital design — considering optimal infection control 09 Diary

10/11 Installing safe healthcare water 12/13 Fittings: Safer hand washing 14/16 Latest Research: Non-tuberculous mycobacteria

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