Planned Preventative Maintenance Reinforces Infection Control

Planned preventative maintenance (PPM) of sluice room machines is vital in the battle against healthcare-associated infections, warns leading equipment manufacturer DDC Dolphin.

Covid-19 can be present in faeces, blood and urine. Care homes and hospitals are being urged to invest their government infection control funding in vital sluice room maintenance and upgrades.

The government has extended the Infection Control Fund until March 2021 with a further £546 million, enabling care homes to:

• buy the infection control resources they need
• pay wages for self-isolating staff and hire more care workers to reduce the need for movement between homes.

A further £300 million will help 117 NHS trusts to reduce overcrowding and improve infection control at A&E facilities.

DDC Dolphin Marketing Director Zoe Allen said: “The sluice room is a vital piece of infection control in any healthcare setting.

“Now it is even more important than ever because the Covid-19 virus can be present in human waste.

“This means it is essential to ensure the sluice room is fully functional at all times to ensure proper management of human waste.”
Care home and hospital managers should act now while funding is still available – and before the annual winter cold and ‘flu season adds to the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

DDC Dolphin is offering care homes and hospitals support to:

• improve their sluice rooms
• implement best practices
• secure infection control funding.

Its service engineers carry out regular servicing of medical pulp macerators, bedpan washers and other sluice room equipment to safeguard care home residents, carers, hospital patients and staff.

Visits by DDC Dolphin engineers are a vital opportunity for care homes and hospitals to:

• check and review their infection control procedures and strategies
• identify and eliminate infection risks.

Ms Allen said: “The only way to ensure your sluice room is fully functioning at all times is to have a service contract in place.

“Best practice – based on DDC Dolphin’s recommendations and 30 years of experience – would be to have your sluice room equipment checked and serviced every six months.

“Annual check-ups and servicing intervals are possible but six months would be the better option, given the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic.”

Regular servicing of sluice room equipment helps establishments to comply with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. It is also an important consideration with regard to Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections.

Regulation 15 (1)(e) of the Health and Social Care Act (enforced by the CQC) states: “There should be suitable arrangements for the purchase, service, maintenance, renewal and replacement of premises (including grounds) and equipment.”

Ms Allen said: “Failure to service your sluice room equipment can result in higher repair bills and machine downtime.

“This can create a higher risk of infection – viruses are more likely to spread if care staff cannot macerate medical pulp or are forced to wash bedpans by hand.”

DDC Dolphin is a global leader in the manufacture and supply of sluice room machines. It is seeing growing demand for its 360° care and maintenance packages that:

• ensure sluice room equipment is serviced properly – extending the life of machines
• save time and reduce stress by putting in place clearly defined planned preventative maintenance strategies and timetables
• reduce overall maintenance costs by providing PPM services and discounts
• spread the cost of maintenance and servicing into regular easy payments.

PPM packages offered by DDC Dolphin include 360° Care – three levels of packages (Ultimate, Essential and Lite) that provide a machine, along with a five-year parts and labour warranty, five years of service and maintenance visits, a chemical dosing system, chemicals and a lockable cabinet.

Options for 360° Care also include sluice room site surveys and health checks, staff training, bedpans, urinal bottles and a wall storage rack.

DDC Dolphin also offers a 360° Service package (Ultimate, Essential, Lite) package that includes annual or twice-yearly service visits, discounts on chemicals (15%, 10%, 5%) and parts for its machines (25%, 15%, 5%), sluice room health checks, water hardness and scale level checks. Options include full asset management/reporting, testing to NHS guidelines and quarterly periodic testing.

The company also has a 360° Chemicals package that spreads the supply and cost of eco-friendly bedpan wash/scale inhibitor and macerator disinfectant into monthly, quarterly or yearly deliveries and payments.

Ms Allen said: “With the global coronavirus pandemic, infection control has never been more important.

“Regular servicing ensures that vital sluice room equipment remains fully operational – providing essential infection control for the most vulnerable members of society and the healthcare professionals that look after them.”

She added: “These are very difficult times for care homes in particular. Planned preventative maintenance helps owners and operators to reinforce their infection control procedures while also managing costs.”

Poole-based DDC Dolphin manufactures and supplies sluice room equipment including:

• medical pulp macerators, bedpan washer disinfectors and incontinence product macerators
• UV air purifiers that use ultraviolet light, ozone and negative ions to kill viruses and bacteria
• medical pulp consumables, maceratable/flushable wipes, hand sanitiser, urinal bottles, bedpans, commode pots, slipper pans, fracture pans, vector pans and vomit bowls
• stainless steel furniture. 

This equipment is essential for the safe disposal of human waste in hospitals and care homes – preventing the spread of infections including superbugs.

DDC Dolphin is the leading manufacturer of medical pulp macerators. It is one of only three companies in the world specialising in the manufacture of these machines.

The company exports sluice room equipment and accessories across the world, protecting patients and clinicians from dangerous infections. Key markets include Europe and Asia.

For more information, please contact DDC Dolphin Marketing Director Zoe Allen, 01202 731555, info@ddcdolphin.com, www.ddcdolphin.com